This week in Year 5, our Geography project based on land use has led us to thinking about allotments and food webs and chains within them.  We worked hard to use our knowledge of predators and consumers and created some food webs connecting living things within the allotment habitats.

This is turn led us to think about life cycles of living things, plants and animals, so we have studied life cycles of mammals, amphibians, reptiles, insects and birds and compared them. We were shocked to discover that some animals lay their eggs and then abandon them to fend for themselves right from hatching! Did you know marsupials are unique because they give birth to live young, then carry them in a pouch to continue the gestation?! Have a look at the similarities and differences between the life cycles and upbringing of different animals below!

Moving on from life cycles of animals, we then studied life cycles of plants and learnt there are two ways plants can reproduce; flowering with pollination and asexually where they reproduce identical baby plants of themselves, like a clone! Some of us were also shocked to discover ginger is a plant, a rhizome in fact, which shoots new plants from it’s roots as it grows! Have a look at our plant life cycles and see if you can spot the differences between the two as well!

I am sure you will agree that our life cycles are clearly labelled and with new vocabulary such as; metamorphosis, germination, pollination, rhizome and tuber, you’ll agree we have been extremely resourceful this week, well done Year 5!