YEAR 5 Protecting wildlife

Week 1, Lesson 1: Why do we protect animals?

Learning outcomes: 5.1a, 5.1e
Context
 This is the first lesson of the unit ‘Protecting wildlife’.
 In this lesson, children will develop their listening and speaking skills. They will use their
knowledge of animals to make decisions about their status (endangered/safe). They will
discuss actions that humans can take to help to protect endangered animals.
 The core lesson should take around 45 minutes to an hour, with extension activities
provided for extending to 90 minutes over two lessons. The timing is flexible to suit
different timetables.

Materials
paper; pencils/pens; whiteboards;
marker pens; photos, books, and/or
magazines featuring different wild
animals, birds, and habitats
(additional task) internet access; paper;
marker pens

Lesson summary
Discuss which animals are endangered
and how to protect them, using a range
of sources and a simple ranking exercise.

Joy of Learning Vocabulary

common, endangered,
Global Skills Projects habitat, protect, rank, rare,
5.1c: Analyse the implications of an sanctuary, survive
action
5.3b: Make decisions
Wellbeing
5.3b: Understand what altruism is
and learn from the altruism of
others
Get moving: Children are physically
active in the lesson

© Oxford University Press 2022; This resource sheet may have been changed from the original. Don’t have the
recommended resources? Find out more at www.oup.com/elt/oxford-discover
 Introductory activity
 Explain to children that they are going to talk about animals which are in danger and why
humans must protect them.
 Divide the class into teams of four to six. Teams have one minute per category to think of animals
which: run, swim, fly, climb. Go through the answers as a class, adding animals to the board, and
awarding a point for each correct answer. The team with the most points wins.
 Display a picture of an animal whose habitat is at risk from human activity, such as a
woodland animal standing in the remains of a forest fire. Ask children: Is it important to help
animals? Why? What will happen if we don’t protect them? Introduce the definition of altruism
in relation to protecting wildlife, as well as vocabulary such as ‘common’, ‘protect’, ‘rare’,
‘sanctuary’, ‘survive’.
Main activity
 Share photos, books, or magazines showing a variety of habitats (such as desert, forest, ocean)
and animals to generate interest. The photos from Oxford Discover SB 5 p.6 may also be used.
 Ask children what habitats they can think of and write them on the board.
 Ask: Which habitats have you visited? Is this habitat near our home, or far away?
 In pairs, ask children to identify animals they know that live in these habitats. Add their ideas to
the board.
 Draw a line on the board, with ‘Extinct’ on the left, ‘Endangered’ in the centre, and ‘Safe’ on the
right. Talk about what these words mean.
 Either on the board, or as a physical activity using three locations in the classroom, ask
children to say, or place themselves, where they would rank (put) different animals on the line.
Use a traffic light system: red = extinct, amber = endangered, and green = safe.
 Ask: Why do you think this animal is safe/in danger? How can we protect this animal? Revisit the
topic of altruism, encouraging further discussion about selflessness and kindness towards all
living things.
 Use the activities in Oxford Discover SB 5 pp.6–7 to discuss what children already know, and what
they would like to learn about this topic.

Additional tasks
 Complete the activities in Oxford Discover WB 5 pp.2–3.
 Use the internet to check the children’s ranking of animals in the main activity, and create their
own ranking line on paper with different animals and their habitat.

Learning review
 Children have begun to think about which animals are in danger, and ways to protect them and
their habitats. They have conducted a simple ranking exercise.

Differentiation
 For more support with this lesson, provide vocabulary banks for habitats and animals.
 Challenge more able children by asking them to give reasons for their decisions.
 As an extension task for more able children, encourage them to choose an endangered animal to
create a sanctuary for. Ask them to create a poster for their animal sanctuary to persuade people
to donate their money or time.

© Oxford University Press 2022; This resource sheet may have been changed from the original. Don’t have the
recommended resources? Find out more at www.oup.com/elt/oxford-discover
 YEAR 5 Protecting wildlife
Week 1, Lesson 2: Why are animals important to us?
Learning outcomes: 5.3e, 5.3g
Context
 This is the second lesson of the unit ‘Protecting wildlife’.
 In this lesson, children will develop their reading skills by identifying the key points in a
text and then expanding their ideas beyond the text. They will consider the real-world
impact of animal exploitation and link it to their own experience. They will have the
opportunity to work in a team.
 The core lesson should take around 45 minutes to an hour, with extension activities
provided for extending to 90 minutes over two lessons. The timing is flexible to suit
different timetables.

Materials
paper; pencils/pens; whiteboards;
marker pens; videos or photos of
different human uses for animals (food,
transport, clothing, pets, zoos)
(additional task) poster paper; markers;
colouring pencils

Lesson summary
Identify the impact of humans on
animals, including exploitation and
extinction, in a reading text. Work in a
team to share knowledge and ideas.
Vocabulary
affect, consequences,
exploit, extinct, impact,
Joy of Learning negative, positive
Global Skills Projects
5.1b: Apply visual or performance
art to learning
5.4b: Understand how personal
consumption affects others
Wellbeing
Get moving: Children are physically
active in the lesson

© Oxford University Press 2022; This resource sheet may have been changed from the original. Don’t have the
recommended resources? Find out more at www.oup.com/elt/oxford-discover
 Introductory activity
 Explain that this lesson will look at why animals are important to us and what happens when
humans use animals badly (‘exploit’ them).
 Share a short video or several photos showing a variety of ways that humans use animals (such
as food, transport, clothing, pets, zoos).
 Write these categories on the board.
 Children write one animal which fits each category on their whiteboard.
 Ask a child to say the animal they wrote for the first category (such as ‘food’). All children
who chose that animal must do five star jumps. Repeat for each category.
 Ask: What animals are important to you? How do you use animals?

Main activity
 Children read ‘Dreaming of Dodos’ in Oxford Discover SB 5 pp.10–11, or search online for
‘Extinct animals, explanation for children’ to find an alternative text. The alternative text should
introduce a number of extinct animals if possible, and explain why they became extinct.
 Ask children to make notes on their whiteboard as they read about the different ways humans
use animals.
 Discuss the reasons why each animal is extinct. Ask: Are there any differences in why animals
become extinct? (human/natural causes).
 Ask children to share their notes in a small group of three to four. They should then work
together to expand their lists of how humans use animals beyond those from the reading text.
 Take feedback from children. Promote class discussion using questions such as: Are these
positive or negative uses? Why? Are some animals more affected than others? If an animal
becomes extinct, what are the consequences for humans? (e.g. we can no longer use it as a food
source) Would it affect you or your family? Why should we care about extinction?
 Each group picks an extinct animal (or one at risk of extinction) and creates a short play to
act out how that animal became (or might become) extinct. These can be shared with the class.
Additional tasks
 Complete the activities in Oxford Discover SB 5 p.12 and/or Oxford Discover WB 5 pp.4–5.
 Create a poster to illustrate ‘Why animals are important to us’.

Learning review
 Children have learned which human activities have an impact on animals and discussed the
consequences of exploitation, using a reading text. They have worked in a team to share
knowledge and act out their ideas.

Differentiation
 To support less able children, read and discuss the text with them in a small group.
 Challenge more able children to think about whether how we use one animal also has an impact
on other animals, or the environment (considering issues such as overpopulation, impact on the
food chain, etc.).

© Oxford University Press 2022; This resource sheet may have been changed from the original. Don’t have the
recommended resources? Find out more at www.oup.com/elt/oxford-discover
 YEAR 5 Protecting wildlife
Week 1, Lesson 3: Endangered animals
Learning outcomes: 5.2b, 5.2c, 5.4d
Context
 This is the third lesson of the unit ‘Protecting wildlife’.
 In this lesson, children will develop their speaking and writing skills to practise the present
perfect and present perfect continuous tenses. They will have the opportunity to work
independently on and research a topic of their choice.
 The core lesson should take around 45 minutes to an hour, with extension activities
provided for extending to 90 minutes over two lessons. The timing is flexible to suit
different timetables.

Materials
paper; pencils/pens; whiteboards;
marker pens; internet access; audio
material of animal sounds

Lesson summary
Allow children to research an
endangered animal of their choice and
write sentences about it using the
present perfect and present perfect
continuous tenses.

Joy of Learning Vocabulary

Global Skills Projects conservation, decrease,
Real-world skills: Research diverse, identify, increase,
6.2c: Evaluate research questions naturalist, poaching,
population
Wellbeing
5.2c: Learn how to let thoughts go
and pay attention to the breath
Fire together, wire together:
Children recall and use
vocabulary learned in previous
lessons

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 Introductory activity
 Warm up quiz: Search online for ‘animal sounds for children’ or ‘animal sounds quiz’ to find five
animal noises. Write the names of the animals in a random order on the board. Include some
endangered and some common animals; some local, some from other countries.
 Encourage children to relax, close their eyes, and pay attention to their breathing.
 With eyes still closed, children listen to the animal noises once through.
 They then open their eyes and listen again, matching each sound to the names on the board and
writing the answers on their whiteboards.
 Check answers. Ask: Which of these animals are endangered?
 Explain that this lesson will teach new grammar, and then look at endangered animals.
Main activity
 Teach the present perfect and the present perfect continuous tenses. Use Oxford Discover SB 5
p.13 as well as your own subject knowledge.
 During the following activity, teach additional topic words such as ‘diverse’, ‘population’,
‘conservation’, ‘naturalist’, and ‘poaching’ (see Oxford Discover SB 5 pp.8 and 16).
 Ask children to pretend they are a naturalist working with an endangered animal. Tell them they
will pick one animal to research (such as a gorilla, a rhino, or a polar bear, but not a tiger, a
panda, or a whale, which are covered in later lessons).
 Ask children to search for information online using ‘National Geographic Kids’, ‘World Wildlife
Fund’, or use classroom resources.
 Ask children to write sentences about their animal and how humans exploit or protect it.
 Ask them to use vocabulary they have learned so far in this unit. Remind children that by
thinking about and using these words in context, they are helping to build their long-term
memory of this learning.
 Ask them to practise the present perfect and present perfect continuous tenses in their
sentences. Provide model sentences on the board: e.g. The gorilla population has been
decreasing for 10 years. Poachers have killed thousands of this species.
 Ask children to read their sentences to a partner, and then share examples as a class. Correct
common mistakes.
 Ask children to reflect on how they used the internet for research. What went well? Did they
think about their goals before starting? What would they do differently?

Additional tasks
 Complete the activities in Oxford Discover SB 5 p.16 and Oxford Discover WB 5 pp.6–7.
 For a more able class, share the poems ‘A Caution for Everybody’ by Ogden Nash and ‘Extinct’ by
Mandy Coe (e.g. search ‘Mandy Coe poetry archive’). Ask: What do these poems tell us about
endangered animals? Are humans endangered too?

Learning review
 Children have learned the present perfect and present perfect continuous tenses, and have used
them in sentences about endangered animals.

Differentiation
 To support less able children, provide a range of sentence starters, and simple webpages for two
or three animals that they can choose from.
 To support less confident children, ask them to read their sentences to each other in pairs before
sharing with the class.

© Oxford University Press 2022; This resource sheet may have been changed from the original. Don’t have the
recommended resources? Find out more at www.oup.com/elt/oxford-discover
 YEAR 5 Protecting wildlife
Week 1, Lesson 4: Why do people hunt animals?
Learning outcomes: 5.1f, 5.2f
Context
 This is the fourth lesson of the unit ‘Protecting wildlife’.
 In this lesson, children will develop their listening and speaking skills by giving their
opinions in the context of a debate. They will have the opportunity to build and respond
to an argument, as well as thinking about realistic compromises.
 The core lesson should take around 45 minutes to an hour, with extension activities
provided for extending to 90 minutes over two lessons. The timing is flexible to suit
different timetables.

Materials
paper; pencils/pens; whiteboards;
marker pens; video clips, suitable for
the age group, showing hunting
activities; whiteboards; marker pens

Lesson summary
Consider in more detail one aspect of
human activity (hunting) that impacts
on the natural world, by preparing and
conducting a class debate.

Joy of Learning Vocabulary

Global Skills Projects compromise, controversial,
5.1a: Discuss moral dilemmas cruel, debate, hunting,
5.3a: Speak effectively in front of illegal, legal, persuade
audiences
Wellbeing
5.2a: Understand the stress
response (fight, flight, freeze)
and when they might
experience it

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 Introductory activity
 Explain that this lesson will look in more detail at one aspect of how animals are important to
humans – hunting.
 You may like to show short videos showing hunting activities. Check in advance that they are
suitable for this age group, and that they are not too graphic. Try to show a range of viewpoints:
o hunting for food, sport, or prized parts of the animal;
o culling for environmental reasons or pest control;
o hunting common versus rare animals;
o local versus global contexts;
o legal hunting versus illegal hunting (poaching).
 Give children an opportunity to respond to what they have seen if they wish.
Main activity
 Ask: What animals do people hunt? Why? Is it always for positive, or negative, reasons?
What’s the impact for humans and for the animals? Is it controversial? What’s the difference
between hunting and poaching?
 Ask: How did the animals feel and react in the videos we saw? Would you react the same
way? Why? Talk about stress and how it affects the hunter and the hunted both physically and
emotionally (such as fast heart rate, more energy sent to the muscles, feeling excited or anxious).
 Divide the class into two sides: Hunters and Animals. Explain that they will debate why they need
to hunt (Humans) and why they should be protected (Animals). Their task is to persuade you to
support their side.
 Divide each side into small teams of three to four to prepare their points using their whiteboards.
 Remind children of key vocabulary to use when providing opinions and giving reasons.
 Hold the debate as a class. Encourage children to take turns by allowing one minute for one
side to speak, and then one minute for the other to respond. Ask: Why do you say that? [Name],
do you agree or disagree? Write their points on the board.
 At the end of the debate, review the points on the board. Discuss possible compromises that
could achieve a good outcome for both humans and animals.

Additional tasks
 Listen to ex.A in Oxford Discover SB 5 p.14 and complete the questions in section B as a class.
Alternatively, source a suitable text providing three to five facts about an animal and one to two
reasons why it is hunted. Read this to the class and check understanding of the key facts.
 Write a summary of their opinions on hunting, from the point of view of a human or an animal.

Learning review
 Children have discussed the reasons for hunting and its impact on the natural world. They have
prepared and conducted a class debate.

Differentiation
 To support less able children, pair them with more able children for the debate planning.
 Challenge more able children by asking them to counter the points made during the debate (give
a contrasting point of view directly responding to the original point).
 As an extension task for more able children, they can research hunting in their own country,
looking at which types of hunting are legal or illegal. They can then research an additional
country to compare and contrast.

© Oxford University Press 2022; This resource sheet may have been changed from the original. Don’t have the
recommended resources? Find out more at www.oup.com/elt/oxford-discover
 YEAR 5 Protecting wildlife
Week 1, Lesson 5: What do you know about tigers?
Learning outcomes: 5.3d, 5.3e, 5.3h, 5.4a, 5.4e
Context
 This is the fifth lesson of the unit ‘Protecting wildlife’.
 In this lesson, children will develop their reading and writing skills by learning how to
focus their skills to complete a task in a limited timescale. They will use written sources to
conduct research and create a presentation.
 The core lesson should take around 45 minutes to an hour, with extension activities
provided for extending to 90 minutes over two lessons. The timing is flexible to suit
different timetables.

Materials
paper; pencils/pens; whiteboards;
marker pens; video clip of tigers;
photos, books, news articles, and
magazines about tigers; dictionaries;
glue sticks; scissors; internet access

Lesson summary
Learn more about tigers and create a
presentation within a limited
timescale.

Joy of Learning
Global Skills Projects Vocabulary
5.2c: Understand information presentation, research,
structure, time limit
presented in graphs
Self-development skills: Children
learn how to manage their time
Wellbeing
5.1d: Understand that struggle and
challenge can help the brain to
grow
Stretch zone challenge: Children
work to a strict time limit during
the main activity

© Oxford University Press 2022; This resource sheet may have been changed from the original. Don’t have the
recommended resources? Find out more at www.oup.com/elt/oxford-discover
 Introductory activity
 Explain that children will be researching tigers today, using their research skills to make a fact file
about tigers and their endangered status.
 Play a short video clip which shows the excitement, strength, and majesty of tigers in the wild.
Main activity
 Provide a number of written sources for children to use for their research, including:
o Oxford Discover SB 5 pp.17–19;
o photos, news and magazine articles, and books about tigers;
o several graphs (such as population size over time);
o internet access with one or two suggested websites suitable for further research.
 Ask children to structure their research, learning from their experience in Lesson 3. Ask: What
questions should you ask? How much information do you need to find out? How long should you
spend on researching and writing? How should you make notes? What will you do if you see an
unknown word?
 Let children know how much time they have and explain that the activity must be
completed within this time limit. Working in this time limit is challenging, especially with so much
information available, but it helps their brain to grow. Remind children that they are in the
stretch zone.
 Ask them to try to use the grammar they have learned this week, and model some examples on
the board: e.g. Tigers have lived in India for thousands of years.
 Allow plenty of time for research and for writing, letting children know when they should be
moving from the research stage to the writing stage.
 Ask children to make a short fact file as a result of their research. This could be on paper or as a
simple online slide presentation.
Additional tasks
 Children present their fact files to each other in small groups, or to the whole class.
 Read the text again on Oxford Discover SB 5 pp.17–19 and answer the questions on p.20.
 Conduct similar research into another type of big cat, ideally from the children’s own continent.
Extend the fact file to compare and contrast this big cat with tigers.

Learning review
 Children have learned more about tigers, and about how to manage their time and effort in a
timed research and presentation task.

Differentiation
 To support less able children, provide extra photos and simple texts which can be cut up and
stuck together to create the fact file.
 Encourage less confident children to use photos as a starting point, thinking about the tiger’s
appearance and habitat, before tackling more challenging aspects of the topic.
 Challenge more confident children by giving them less guidance on how to structure their
research. You may set them off on the task while discussing this with the rest of the class.
 To challenge more able children, ask them to link their sentences, so that 2–3 sentences relate to
the same subject (such as appearance, endangered status, hunting).

© Oxford University Press 2022; This resource sheet may have been changed from the original. Don’t have the
recommended resources? Find out more at www.oup.com/elt/oxford-discover