11 Feb 2021

ARC's Snakes in the Heather Education Officer, Owain Masters, tells us about a new video series teaching primary school age children about reptiles.

At Amphibian and Reptile Conservation we know it is vital to inform, interest and involve the next generation in conservation of wildlife. With this in mind we have produced a series of video lessons for primary school aged children. These videos are to support home-schooling parents and produce a resource that teachers can use in the future. Watch them to learn about what makes our reptiles such fascinating animals whilst linking this to the curriculum for science.

The video lessons firstly explain what a reptile is and teach the names of all the wonderful lizards and snakes that live naturally in the UK. They then highlight UK reptiles as examples to revise concepts including habitats, food chains, how and why we group animals together, lifecycles and even why snakes evolved to lose their legs!

All the lessons are interactive and encourage calling out answers and lots of repetition, so it isn't necessary to be able to read bigger words to learn. Just press play and leave your learners to it! 

We have now uploaded all of the lessons to our YouTube channel in a playlist in the order below:

Video Lesson	Upload date (all are 2021)	Year Group
What is a reptile?	Friday 26th February	Curriculum linked for year 1 but suitable for years 2 – 6 as revision
Reptiles of the UK	Friday 26th February	This video is an introduction for years 2 to 6 that needs to be watched before the curriculum linked videos
Where do reptiles live and why?	Friday 5th March	Curriculum linked for year 2 but suitable for years 3 – 6 as revision
What do reptiles eat and why?	Friday 12th March	Curriculum linked for year 3 but suitable for years 4 – 6 as revision
Grouping snakes and lizards	Friday 19th March	Curriculum linked for year 4 but suitable for years 5 – 6 as revision
The lifecycles of snakes and lizards	Friday 26th March	Curriculum linked for year 5 but suitable for years 6 – 7 as revision
Why are snakes and lizards the way they are?	Friday 2nd April	Curriculum linked for year 6 but suitable for years 7- 8 as revision

These videos are curriculum linked for each year group but follow on from each other so can be watched in their entirety. We hope you find them useful. If you have any questions please email Owain on [email protected]

 

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Funding for Education Officer time to produce these videos has been provided by the National Lottery Heritage Fund as part of the Snakes in the Heather project. For more information visit the project page.