Lesson video

Hi, everybody.

It's Miss Simkin, back again for your next science lesson.

I hope that you are well, and you're excited for today's lesson because today we've got lots of learning to do but we've also got some making to do.

We are going to continue with our learning on habitats, but today we are going to learn about a particular type of habitat called a microhabitat, and we're actually going to make our own microhabitats as well today.

So this is what we're going to do.

We're going to start with our star words.

We're going to do some quick recap of our learning.

Then we're going to learn what a microhabitat is, and look at some examples.

Then we are going to build a bug hotel! And at the end of the lesson, you will have a chance to do your end of lesson quiz.

For today's lesson, you will need a piece of paper, a pencil, a coloured pencil, a different colour, so you can mark your answers and your brain.

If you don't have any of those things, could you pause the video and go and get them now, please? Great.

Okay, now that you've got everything that you need, let's get our brains ready for the lesson.

Do you remember what we do? First thing, gentle tap to wake it up, then a shake to get the blood flowing and then three deep breaths, so our oxygen, so all the oxygen goes to our brain.

Ready? Great, now we're ready to begin.

You might also need some materials for building the bug hotel, but don't worry, I'll explain what you need for that when we get there.

Our Star Words for today are these.

I'm going to say them and then you're going to say them.

Organism.

Habitat.

Microhabitat.

Environment.

Great, good job.

An organism is a living thing, it could be a plant or an animal.

A habitat, we learnt about a habitat in our last lesson, and I'm actually not going to remind you of the definition because we're going to do it in our recap session and I want to see what you can remember.

A microhabitat is a new type of habitat that we're going to learn about today and an environment is someone's surroundings.

So my environment at the moment is my living room where I'm recording this lesson.

What's your environment at the moment? Great! Let's recap.

So last lesson we learned about a habitat.

This was our definition of a habitat, but it's got some gaps in it.

Can you remember what goes in those gaps? A habitat is the natural, I'm giving you a clue with my actions.

What goes in that first gap? Say it to your screen.

Good job! A habitat is the natural home, of an, hm.

What's the next gap? It was one of our star words, begins with an O.

An organism, good job! So the whole definition should say, a habitat is the natural home of an organism.

Your turn.

Great, well done! Now we are going to look at a microhabitat.

A microhabitat is a type of habitat, but when you put the word micro in front of the word.

Micro is a prefix that means really, really, really, really small.

So what do you think a microhabitat might be? That's right! It's a really small habitat.

So this is our definition.

You can see the picture showing you the action.

It's really, really, really, really small.

Can you show me the action for microhabitat? Good job! A microhabitat is a small habitat, that's different to the surrounding environment.

So there's two key parts of that.

So the fact that it's very small, but also that it's different.

So an example, would be a rock pool.

If you've ever been to the seaside, you might have seen a rock pool before.

A rock pool is a small habitat, it's much smaller than the rest of the beach.

It's also different to the rest of the beach, which might be sandy.

Whereas a rock pool is just a small little pool in a rock, so it's different to the rest of the sandy beach.

So there's two things that a microhabitat is can you remember? Small and different, good job! Okay.

Can you fill in the gaps in this definition? You can say them out loud.

A microhabitat is a small, mm, that is, mm, to the surrounding environment.

What should go in those gaps? Say it to your screen.

A microhabitat is a small habitat that is different to the surrounding environment.

Well done if you've got that correct.

Let's practise it one more time.

A micro habitat is a small habitat that is different to the surrounding environment.

Good job! Okay.

Now you've got the same definition, but it's got some different gaps in it.

This time could you write your answer down on your piece of paper.

A, mm, is a, mm, habitat that is different to the surrounding environment.

Pause the video and write down your definition please.

Good job! The answer is, a microhabitat is, a mm, sorry is a small habitat that is different to the surrounding environment.

Give yourself a tick if you wrote microhabitat.

Give yourself a tick if you wrote small.

If you made a mistake, that's okay, remember mistakes, make our brains stronger.

You can just correct yourself in a different coloured pencil.

Pause the video if you need some time to do that now.

Great.

Now here is an example of a microhabitat.

Have a look, what can you see? That's right, there's a log and it's got two turtles on it.

Now it's the log here that's the microhabitat because a log is quite small, especially compared to the rest of the habitat, which is this big pond.

And it's also different to the rest of the habitat.

The pond is the main habitat and that log is different.

And within that microhabitat, there could be lots of things living in it.

So there are lots of insects that love rotting wood.

So flies might want to lay that eggs on the floating wood.

Woodlice love living inside rotting word.

Might have ants, beetles, lots of things, not just turtles using it as a float.

So that's one example of a microhabitat.

Another example we spoke about a bit before, but this is, now you can see a picture.

This is a rock pool.

It's that pool of water in the middle of the rock.

Can you get your finger and can you point to one of the rock pools? Great! Now this is a small habitat.

You can see it's almost just the size of a puddle.

So it's a microhabitat and it's also different to the rest of the beach.

What kind of things do you think might live in a rock pool? Say it out loud to your screen.

That's right! You might find little fish or snails.

You can see that there's some algae and some seaweed.

Might be starfish, sea urchins, sea anemones.

There's lots of things that you can find in a rock pool.

And if you live by the sea or you ever get the chance to visit the sea, then going rock pooling is a really fun thing to do.

And you can climb and see and investigate what's inside each rock pool.

Now in this of the lesson, we are going to design a bug hotel.

So we're going to make our own microhabitat.

So it's going to be different to the surrounding habitat and it's going to be small and hopefully lots of bugs will be able to live in our microhabitat.

So I'm going to go through the instructions and then I'm going to show you how I make my bug hotel.

And then if you'd like to, you'll have the chance to make your own.

So first of all, listen to the instructions.

Second, watch me make mine.

And third, you can make yours if you want to.

So here's how I'm going to make my bug hotel.

The first thing I'm going to do, is I'm going to cut the top and the bottom of a plastic bottle.

If you're doing this at home, when it's your turn, you need to ask your parent or carer to cut the top and bottom of the plastic bottle for you.

Because cutting with scissors, especially something that's round and an awkward shape can be quite dangerous, okay? So that's important.

Then I'm going to collect some sticks and leaves and bark.

And I'm going to fill my plastic tube with those materials.

Then I'm going to choose a good spot for my microhabitat.

Now I need to think about the kind of environment that insects like.

So most insects like cool, moist conditions.

So a shady area next to a hedge or under a tree would work quite well, okay? If you don't have a plastic bottle, then you can still take part in this because you could actually make your bug hotel a bit like this picture here, where you take the leaves and the barks and the twigs and instead of putting them inside the plastic bottle, you need to carefully build them up, so they have a structure, a bit like that.

Okay, I'm going to show you how I'm going to make my bug hotel now and then you'll have a chance.

Okay, now I'm going to show you how I made my bug hotel.

So remember, step one is to ask your parent or carer to chop the top off a plastic bottle.

So I've got quite a big one here, but you could definitely use a small one as well.

Okay.

It doesn't need to be very, very long.

And so I'm going to do that now.

Cut the top off.

So, cut the top off, and now I'm going to do the same for the bottom.

Like I said, it doesn't need to be very long.

So I'm going to cut it about here.

There we go, okay.

So now I have a plastic tube with a hole all the way through the middle.

Okay and this is going to help me structure my bug hotel.

Then step two was to collect some leaves, some twigs, some bark, any kind of dry things that you see on the ground.

Now, it's important not to collect living things.

So don't pull any flowers or leaves or twigs from a tree or a bush.

Just see what you can collect on the ground, things that have already fallen off.

If you have a garden, then you would be able to do this in your garden.

If you don't, then next time you go on a walk with your parent or carer, then you can collect some of these things as you go.

That's what I did.

So here are some of the kind of dried twigs and leaves and seeds and bits and bobs I found during my walk.

Then step three is to fill your plastic container with these.

So, what you need to do, is if you start with the sticks, that's the easiest thing to do and you just put them in like this.

So you go into the hole like this and you can start to build up your structure.

You can see we've got one here with bits of leaves on it, which is great.

I might even just bend that round.

Get it all in.

It's okay to have gaps in between, because those are the gaps that your bugs are going to crawl between, but you want to try and fill it.

The aim is that when you kind of tip it like this, most of the things will stay in because they're quite tightly packed together.

Okay.

So I'm going to keep filling my bug hotel.

And that's about half full there.

'Kay.

And then when you've got only leaves and little bits left, that's what you're going to push into the gaps between all of your twigs.

Okay? If you've got any big leaves, you might want to put them in before it gets too full, like this.

You're just slotting everything in, to your bug hotel.

And then the last step is to find somewhere to put your bug hotel.

So again, if you've got a garden, then you might be able to find somewhere under a bush or a tree to put it there.

If you don't, then you could probably just put it next to your front door, where if you have a little window ledge under there, it's best not to put these in parks or public spaces because some people might think that this plastic is littering and it might just get picked up and put in the bed or it might contaminate a part of the environment.

Okay? So that is the start of my bug hotel, I'm going to keep putting things in.

If you want, you can now pause the video and have a go at making your own bug hotel.

If you don't have a garden and you need to wait until your next walk or when your parent or carer is free to cut up your plastic for you, then that's okay.

You know how to make a bug hotel now.

You can save that activity for another day, when it suits you better.

Well done for all of your hard work today.

You should be really proud of what you've learned about microhabitats.

And if you've already made your bug hotel, then fantastic.

If you're saving it for another day, then good luck and I hope you enjoy it! Just before you go, don't forget to do your end of lesson quiz, please.

Have a fantastic rest of your day.

And hopefully I will see you back here for another science lesson soon.

Bye everybody.