Hello, everyone, my name is Mrs. Mehrin, and I am so excited to be learning all about animal life cycles with you today.

You've made a great choice to learn all about this topic, and we are going to do brilliantly.

So welcome to today's lesson from the unit New Life.

This lesson is called Animal Life Cycles, and by the end of today's lesson, we are going to be able to recognise different life cycles and describe the different changes that happen at each stage of the life.

So some of the learning is brand new, but I'm here to help you, and we are going to be building on our previous learning about how animals grow and change.

Sometimes learning can be a little challenging, but I'm here to help you, and we are going to work really hard together and learn lots of fabulous new things.

So your outcome today is to make observations and describe how an animal grows and changes in its lifecycle.

So here are our key words for today.

I'm going to be using these words throughout the lesson, so make sure you're listening out for those, and I will explain what the words mean.

So to begin, let's do a my turn, your turn.

My turn.

Animal.

Your turn.

My turn.

Adult.

Your turn.

My turn.

Offspring.

Your turn.

My turn.

Lifecycle.

Your turn.

My Turn.

Observe.

Your turn.

Fantastic.

Well done.

So our lesson today is split into two sections.

Let's begin with our first section, which is, what is a lifecycle? All animals grow and change from when they are born to when they become an adult.

This calf is the offspring of the elephant.

Offspring can mean a parent's child or an animal's young, and it will grow and change as it grows into an adult elephant.

So true or false? Animals stay the same throughout their lives.

Is that true or is that false? I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Fantastic.

Well done.

The answer is false.

Now, let's see if we can put that into a sentence.

So I think this because a, animals grow and change from when they are born to when they become an adult, or b, animals give birth to babies called offspring.

You can either pause the video here, or I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Fantastic.

Well done.

The answer is a, I think this because animals grow and change from when they are born to when they become an adult.

Some offspring looks similar to their parents when they are born and some look very different, but they will all grow and change over time.

This caterpillar will change a lot as it grows into a beautiful butterfly.

These young animals look similar to their parents, but they will both change as they grow into adults.

We've got a puppy and dog, and an infant and monkey.

What changes do you think will happen to each of these offspring? You can pause the video here if you like, or I'll give you five seconds to have a think.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Really good thinking.

Well done.

So as you can see, the offspring do look very similar to their parents as adults.

However, there are some changes that happen.

So, for example, the offspring, as you can see, are much smaller than their parents.

So as they grow, they'll grow in size as well.

And you might have noticed that their fur changes as well, especially with the infant and the monkey.

You can see that the infant has very smooth, but quite short fur, but the adult has a lot of fur and it's much, much thicker.

It's not so obvious to tell with the puppy and the dog, however you can see the difference in size between them.

Fantastic, well done.

So the journey that shows all the stages of growth from when an animal is born until it's fully grown is called a lifecycle.

This is a lifecycle of a frog.

Can you observe the changes that are happening in this lifecycle of a frog? So look really closely.

What can you see is happening? You may like to pause the video here so you can really observe the changes.

Fantastic.

Well done.

So as you can see, we've got the frogspawn.

So the eggs and now the frogspawn are like jelly with this black dot in the middle, which then becomes the tadpole.

Now, the tadpole has a head and a tail, and then we have the froglet, and you can see that the tail is still there on a froglet, but now it's grown it's legs and it's become bigger in size.

And then you have the adult frog.

Now, the adult frog no longer has a tail because it shrinks and disappears, but it is fully grown now.

So we can put each stage of an animal's life cycle in order and use arrows to show which stage in the life cycle comes next.

So in this life cycle, we start with an egg, and when the egg hatches, it becomes a caterpillar.

Now, when the caterpillar sheds its skin, it reveals a hard shell underneath, and this is called a chrysalis, and it protects the caterpillar whilst it transforms into a beautiful butterfly.

And then the life cycle starts all over again.

So let's check your understanding.

What is a life cycle? Is it a, adult animals have babies called offspring? Is it b, the journey from when an animal is born until it's fully grown? Or c, some offspring look different to their parents? So again, you can pause the video here if you'd like, or I'll give you five seconds to have a really good think.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Well done.

The answer is b, the journey from when an animal is born until it is fully grown.

Well done.

You are doing so well.

So here is your first task and it says, put these animal life cycles in order.

Start from the youngest to the oldest.

So I'd like you to pause the video here so you can have a really good go at this.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Well done.

Let's see if you got those right.

So here is the life cycle of a dog.

So it begins as a newborn puppy and it becomes a growing puppy, which then becomes an adult.

Fantastic.

Well done.

Let's see if you've got the next one correct as well.

So we've got the life cycle of a frog.

So it starts off as frogspawn, which we said looks like jelly, and then it becomes a tadpole.

The tadpole becomes a froglet, and the froglet becomes a frog.

Well done.

So now let's begin the second part of our learning today.

Scientists can use observation skills to describe changes in animals.

So that might be looking closely at pictures in a book.

It might be observing through binoculars.

Observing something means looking closely at it.

For example, looking closely through a magnifying glass, or looking closely at information in a book.

So let's see if you can remember what the word observing means.

So observing something means, is it a, finding information from the internet, b, looking closely at it, or c, asking questions? I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Well done.

The answer is b, looking closely at it.

Let's have a look at our next question.

Which of these would you use to observe something? Would it be a, a ruler, b, the internet, or c, binoculars? I'll give you five seconds to think about your answer.

Off you go.

Fantastic, well done.

The answer is c, binoculars.

So we can observe animals to describe the stage they have reached in their life cycle.

For example, cygnets.

These cygnets are at birth stage of their life cycle.

They are small with fluffy grey feathers and a grey beak.

And here we have a picture of the cygnets in their nest.

Over time we can observe so we can look closely at how the newborn cygnet changes into growing offspring.

Aisha says the cygnet has grown much bigger.

It has left its nest and learned how to swim.

It still has grey feathers, but they look much less fluffy now.

The cygnet then grows into a swan, and this is the adult stage of its life cycle.

Let's see what Lucas has to say.

Lucas says, the adult swan is a large bird with white feathers and an orange beak.

This one has laid some eggs in its nest.

So we have observed, looked really closely, at three stages of the swan's life cycle, the cygnet, which is the offspring at birth, which then becomes a growing offspring.

And you can see here that its feathers are less fluffy and it's learned how to swim.

And then the growing offspring becomes an adult swan, which lays eggs and then the life cycle starts all over again.

Fantastic.

Really good learning so far.

So we can observe, sort, and describe animals by their life stage.

So we have a newborn piglet, which then becomes a growing piglet, and then becomes an adult pig.

Can you see what is similar and different about each life stage of a pig? I'll let you pause the video here so you can observe the changes really closely.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Really good observations.

So you may have noticed the biggest thing, which is that they grow in size at each stage.

So the newborn piglet gets bigger and becomes a growing piglet, which then becomes even bigger and becomes a pig.

Now, an interesting fact is some newborn piglets change colour, and you can see that here.

The newborn piglet has grey fur and the growing piglet does not have that anymore.

You might have also noticed in the adult pig, it has teats and these teats are used to feed the newborn piglets.

Fantastic, really good observations.

Well done.

So Sam has sorted these monkeys by their life stage.

Can you spot any mistakes? I'll let you pause the video here so that you can really look closely and see what mistakes Sam has made.

Fantastic, well done.

Let's see if you were right.

The infant and newborn infant need to be swapped to be in the correct order.

So it should have been offspring at birth, which is the newborn infant, followed by the growing offspring, and then the growing offspring becomes the adult monkey.

Well done.

So another way that Sam could have sorted these monkeys by their life stage is by observing really closely and looking at those pictures.

So you can see that the newborn infant is smaller than the growing offspring, and the growing offspring is smaller than the adult monkey.

And there are some other signs that Sam could have looked out for.

So you can see with the newborn infant that it doesn't have much fur at all.

However, the infant then begins to grow more fur.

And then finally, the adult monkey has lots of fur.

So we can use our observation skills to really help us to sort animals into their life stages.

Let's have a look at your second task.

It says, sort these animals by their life stage into offspring at birth, growing offspring, and adult.

Describe the changes you have observed.

So we've got a cat and a flamingo.

Remember to use the tip that I gave you before about observing the photos really closely as well.

So you can use the words that are written underneath each of the pictures, but also use your observation skills.

Really look at how these animals are changing and which ones you think should go first at birth, and then growing offspring, and then adult.

So I'd like you to pause the video here and sort these animals by their life stage into offspring at birth, growing offspring, and adult.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Really good work and fantastic thinking.

Let's see if you were correct.

So we've got the offspring at birth, which is the newborn kitten, that becomes the growing offspring, and then that becomes the adult cat.

So you've got newborn kitten, kitten, and then cat.

Let's have a look at the flamingo.

So it should have gone offspring at birth is the newborn flamingo, the growing offspring is the flamingo chick, and then you have the adult flamingo.

And we can see from the adult flamingo that it's become pink in colour and its feathers are a lot lighter compared to the flamingo chick and the newborn flamingo.

So you can see a lot of changes have happened throughout these animals' life stages.

Now let's see what Lucas and Aisha had to say about it.

So Lucas says the newborn kitten is small and fluffy, but as it grows it becomes less fluffy.

All of its body parts get bigger.

And Aisha says the newborn flamingo and flamingo chick are white.

But this changes as it becomes an adult and its feathers turn pink.

So did you make the same observations as Lucas and Aisha, or did you have other observations? Fantastic, well done.

Really fantastic thinking.

So let's do a summary of all of our learning today.

So all animals grow and change from when they are born to when they become an adult.

The journey from the beginning until an animal is fully grown is called its lifecycle.

And scientists can use observation skills to describe changes in animals and describe the stage an animal has reached in its lifecycle.

You have done some fantastic learning today.

I am so proud of you and it has been such a wonderful lesson learning all about animal life cycles with you.

You've done such critical thinking and have worked wonderfully.

Well done.