Learning objectives
Knowledge
- To compare animal life cycles.
Working scientifically
- To pose questions about life cycles.
Success criteria
Knowledge
- I can order the stages of different animal life cycles.
- I can identify similarities between animal life cycles.
- I can identify differences between animal life cycles.
Working scientifically
- I can make careful observations about ocean animals and their life cycles.
- I can pose questions about living things and their life cycles.
National curriculum
Science
Living things and their habitats
Pupils should be taught to:
- Identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited and describe how different habitats provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants, and how they depend on each other.
- Identify and name a variety of plants and animals in their habitats, including microhabitats.
Animals, including humans
Pupils should be taught to:
- Notice that animals, including humans, have offspring which grow into adults.
- Find out about and describe the basic needs of animals, including humans, for survival (water, food and air).
Working scientifically
Pupils should be taught to use the following practical scientific methods, processes and skills:
- Asking simple questions and recognising that they can be answered in different ways.
- Observing closely, using simple equipment.
- Identifying and classifying.
Cross-curricular links
English
Spoken language
Pupils should be taught to:
- Listen and respond appropriately to adults and their peers.
- Ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge.
- Use relevant strategies to build their vocabulary.
- Articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions.
- Use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas.
- Participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations and debates.
Writing – composition
Pupils should be taught to:
- Write sentences by:
- composing a sentence orally before writing it;
- re-reading what they have written to check that it makes sense.
- Discuss what they have written with the teacher or other pupils.
- Read aloud their writing clearly enough to be heard by their peers and the teacher.
See National curriculum - English - Key stages 1 and 2.
Geography
Human and physical geography
Pupils should be taught to:
- Use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to key physical features, including: beach, cliff, coast, forest, hill, mountain, sea, ocean, river, soil, valley, vegetation, season and weather.
See National curriculum – Geography - Key stages 1 and 2.
British values
- Mutual respect.
See Promoting fundamental British values as part of SMSC in schools (non-statutory advice) – contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v2.0.
Before the lesson
Check all images, videos, links and presentation slides are suitable for your class.
- Presentation: Ocean young.
- Presentation: Life cycles of ocean animals.
- Presentation: Crab life cycle.
- Flipchart (optional – one for the teacher).
- Whiteboards and pens (one each).
- Whiteboard pens in different colours (optional).
- Highlighters in different colours (support – see Adaptive teaching).
Print in advance of the lesson.
Subject knowledge
This lesson revises subject knowledge from the units Science, Year 1/2 (A), Animals, including humans: Life cycles and health. Look for any associated misconceptions in the unit lessons.
Life cycles of ocean animals
The salmon life cycle (as an example of fish life cycles) has four condensed key stages:
- Egg.
- Alevin (tiny fish with the yolk sac still attached).
- Fry (small fish).
- Adult fish.
The sea turtle has four key stages:
- Egg.
- Hatchling.
- Juvenile turtle.
- Adult turtle.
Lesson plan
1: Recap and recall
Write the following vocabulary on the board or a flipchart:
- Offspring.
- Egg.
- Life cycle.
- Live young.
- Stage.
Play the Pupil video: Animal life cycles from the unit Science, Year 1/2 (A), Animals, including humans: Life cycles and health. Hand out whiteboards and pens and ask the children to create a sentence using at least one written keyword.
Pupil video: Animal life cycles
Take feedback and discuss the children’s use of vocabulary, using the video as a prompt.
2: Attention grabber
Display the Presentation: Ocean young. Ask the children to think about where ocean animals come from.
Presentation: Ocean young
Encourage them to write questions about the ocean young and their life cycles using the keywords as prompts.
Take feedback, prompting them to recall where they should place capital letters and question marks.
Possible questions include:
- Which animal does that offspring belong to?
- Do dolphins give birth to live young?
- Do fish lay eggs?
- What stage of the life cycle is that?
Click on the images to reveal further information about each creature shown, if required.
3: Main event
Arrange the children into groups of three. Hand out the Activity: Sorting life cycles (pre-cut, one between three) and whiteboard pens for them to write on the desks. Alternatively, provide whiteboards for them to position the pictures and write labels on.
Ask the children to group their cards by animal. Encourage them to organise the pictures into piles and add suitable labels.
Display slide 1 of the Presentation: Life cycles of ocean animals, which matches the Activity: Sorting life cycles.
Presentation: Life cycles of ocean animals
Invite volunteers to drag the images in the presentation to the correct group and allow the class to check their card groupings.
Proceed to slide 2 and ask the children to identify each life cycle’s youngest and oldest stages. Instruct them to add the final two cards to form a life cycle for each animal group, using whiteboard pens to add arrows to complete the diagrams.
Ask volunteers to drag the images in the presentation to form a life cycle to check their work. Repeat this with slides 3 and 4 to sort the other animals’ life cycles.
Decide as a class on a symbol representing similarity (such as a tick, an equals sign or an ‘S’) and difference (such as a cross, a crossed-out equals sign or a ‘D’). Alternatively, hand out whiteboard pens in different colours and allow the children to colour-code the two categories and use a key to explain which is which. Ask the class to discuss similarities and differences between each life cycle within their group. Explain that each pupil is responsible for recording the notes on one of the life cycles.
Photograph the children’s arranged images and labels to record their work.
Take feedback and ask the children to compare identified similarities and differences. These may include:
- All three begin life hatching from an egg.
- They all change as they grow.
- They all start smaller and get bigger.
- The butterfly lives fully on land, the fish lives entirely in the water and the turtle can live on land and in water. Their habitats can be very different.
- The butterfly goes through metamorphosis but the other two do not.
- The baby and adult turtles look most alike compared to the other juveniles and adults.
4: Wrapping up
Display the Presentation: Crab life cycle.
Presentation: Crab life cycle
Ask the children to discuss in pairs which of the three life cycles is most similar to the crab life cycle. Emphasise that there is no single correct answer, but they should be ready to explain their reasoning.
Take feedback. Answers may include:
- The crab is most like the fish because the eggs, baby salmon and crab larvae look very different from the adults.
- The crab is most like the fish because they can both live and breathe underwater.
- The crab is most like the turtle because they can both live on land and in the water.
- The crab is most like the turtle because they both have hard shells as adults.
- The crab is most like the butterfly because both life cycles involve changes in shape: the young look very different from the adults.
Ask the children if they have any further questions they would need to find out to help them be more sure of their answers.
Note: ask the children to bring clean, transparent plastic drink bottles, preferably two-litre in size, for Lesson 3: Investigating ocean litter.
Extended-mode explainer videos
How to extend your display to view the lesson page and preseantion mode simultaneously. Choose your operating system below to watch the video
If you need further support with extending your display,
please contact [email protected].
Extended-mode explainer video: For Mac
Extended-mode explainer video: For Windows
Adaptive teaching
Pupils needing extra support
Should use the Activity: Sorting life cycles: support version to sort and compare the butterfly and fish life cycles; could stick a copy of the Activity: Sorting life cycles into their book and annotate or circle similarities directly; could use different coloured highlighters to mark the similarities and differences.
Pupils working at greater depth
Could reflect on their knowledge of the different animal groups when comparing life cycles if they have completed the unit Science, Y1/2 (B), Animals, including humans: Comparing animals; should pose new questions about ocean life cycles (considering capital letters and question marks) and explain how their questions have changed from the start of the lesson.
Assessing progress and understanding
Pupils with secure understanding indicated by: ordering the stages of a butterfly and ocean animal’s life cycle; identifying similarities and differences; posing questions about different ocean animals using observations and scientific knowledge.
Pupils working at greater depth indicated by: posing further questions and explaining why or how these have changed through the lesson; using correct grammar when posing written questions.
Vocabulary definitions
-
compare
Finding out how things are different or similar.
-
depend
To need the help of something else to survive.
-
difference
Not the same.
-
egg
Laid by different types of animals to produce offspring.
-
life cycle
The stages an animal goes through to become an adult.
-
live young
Animals that are produced without an egg.
-
offspring
The young born to a living thing.
-
similarity
Nearly the same.
In this unit
Assessment - Science Y1/2 (A): Ocean protectors
Y1/2 (A): Lesson 1: Rockpooling
Y1/2 (A): Lesson 2: Life cycles of ocean animals
Y1/2 (A): Lesson 3: Ocean litter
Y1/2 (A): Lesson 4: Ocean food chains
Y1/2 (A): Lesson 5: Being a marine biologist
Maintained by: Kapow Primary team
Last update: 5th July, 2025
