How animals get food
I can describe how animals get the food they need to stay alive
How animals get food
I can describe how animals get the food they need to stay alive
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- Animals need food in order to stay alive
- Different animals eat different types of food and they get this in different ways.
- Animals use their senses to find food in different ways.
- Some animals hunt or find food around them, some animals are fed by humans.
- Scientists search for answers by looking for information in places like books or the internet. This is called research.
Keywords
Animals - Animals are living things that move and eat other animals or plants to stay alive.
Food - Food gives living things energy and helps them to stay healthy.
Hunt - To hunt is to to chase and try to catch and kill an animal for food.
Graze - When animals graze, they feed on plants around them such as growing grass.
Research - To research something is to find out about it or investigate it carefully.
Common misconception
Pupils may think that all animals eat the same food, and also have food provided by humans.
Visuals to show lots of examples of different animals eating different food, and getting it in different ways.
To help you plan your year 2 science lesson on: How animals get food, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 2 science lesson on: How animals get food, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 1 science lessons from the Introduction to food chains unit, dive into the full secondary science curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
Access to appropriate secondary sources such as books, the internet, and experts to ask.
Licence
Starter quiz
6 Questions









can live in water or on land.
breathe through their gills.
have wings and feathers.
are cold-blooded and are covered in scales or hard parts.
Exit quiz
6 Questions





finding and killing an animal to eat
eating grasses and other plants around them
eating food given to them
grass, leaves and shoots of plants, berries
fish and other small animals
seeds and worms