Sc2 - Living things in their environment. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: To understand that different animals are found in different habitats.

Transcription

1 BADGERS

2 Teacher s Notes Introduction The Widwood Anima Workbooks for Key Stage 2 incude Badgers, Otters, Frogs and Woves. Each workbook foows a standardised pattern so that chidren can seect different animas to study but sti cover the same themes. The activity sheets are appropriate for use either as an introduction before a visit or as foow up work. Each activity sheet is designed to ink in with and support Nationa Curricuum Programmes of Study for different subjects, incuding Science, Literacy, Numeracy and Art. There are aso Key Stage 1 workbooks covering the same animas to aid differentiation. Activity Sheets The foowing ist gives detais of the activity sheets contained in the workbook, incuding the reevant Nationa Curricuum P.O.S and the earning objectives which each sheet covers. Adaptation SUBJECT: Science 1 Sc2 - Living things in their environment To understand that different animas are found in different habitats. To understand that animas are suited to the environment in which they are found. Food Chains and Teeth SUBJECT: Science 2 Sc2 - Living things in their environment To understand that most food chains start with a green pant. To identify the structure of a food chain of a specific anima. To identify important features of an anima s mouth in reation to its diet.

3 Teacher s Notes Food Chains and Diet SUBJECTS: Science & Numeracy 3 Sc2 - Humans and Other Animas Ma4 - Processing, representing and interpreting data. To understand that different animas have different diets. To present evidence about foods eaten by an anima in a suitabe bar chart. Habitats and Homes SUBJECT: Science 4 Sc2 - Living things in their environment To identify different types of habitats. 5 Tracks and Signs SUBJECT: Science Sc2 - Living things in their environment To identify badgers according to observabe features. Human Impact and Conservation SUBJECT: Science 6 Sc2 - Living things in their environment To recognise ways in which iving things and the environment need protection.

4 Teacher s Notes 7 Myths and Legends SUBJECT: Literacy En2 - Myths, Legends & Traditiona Stories To understand the difference between myths and egends and fact. 8 Quiz SUBJECTS: Literacy & Science En2 - Reading for information Sc2 - Living things in their environment To scan texts to find information. The Widwood Badgers SUBJECTS: Art 9 Exporing and deveoping ideas To record from first hand observation. 10 Life Cyce SUBJECT: Science Sc2 - Living things in their environment To understand that aduts have young and that these grow into aduts which in turn produce young.

5 Teacher s Notes 11 Activity SUBJECT: Literacy En2 - Reading strategies To recognise words and show understanding of their meanings. 12 Activity SUBJECTS: Art & Engish Investigating and making art,craft and design En2 - Nonfiction and noniterary texts. To deveop contro of toos and techniques in art and design. To understand the structura and organisationa features of instructions. 13 Gossary SUBJECTS: Science & Engish Sc2 - Life processes and iving things En3 - Speing To deveop understanding of scientific vocabuary. To have a secure understanding of the purpose and organisation of a gossary. Pease note that throughout the pack, underined words can be found in the gossary.

6 Made to Dig Adaptation Badgers are members of the wease famiy, a group of mammas which aso incudes the wease, stoat and otter. You wi probaby recognise their face, white with broad back stripes, with sma eyes and fexibe snout. A cean badger is grey athough they can often be white, back or ginger. Each badger is very strong and has many features that hep it to dig we and ive underground. Thick reinforced sku to protect the brain when it bumps its head underground. Long snout with bristes heps the badger sniff out worms. Its sense of sme is exceent. Long, muscuar, wedge-shaped body for squeezing through tunnes. Strong caws to hep with digging. Very short tai so that it doesn t get cogged with earth and mud. Short but extremey strong egs for digging. Let s take a coser ook at the feet. A B Question: Which are the front feet and which are the back feet? How do you know? Question: Why do you think the badger has a stripy face?

7 Food Chains and Teeth Food Chains Teeth Can you draw and fi in the gaps of this simpe food chain? Part of Pant producer Herbivore consumer Omnivore consumer Sun L _ Worms B _ Badgers have teeth which are used for eating meat and pants. The teeth are different shapes with sma incisors for cutting fattened moars for chewing canines for tearing Can you name the different types of teeth on these badger skus? Use these shapes to hep you. Incisor Canine Moar 2

8 Feeding Time Food Chains Diet With its short egs the badger is not abe to chase prey, instead it forages which means it searches for its food on the ground. Badgers are omnivores which means they eat both meat and pants. Their main food is worms and these form more than 50% (haf) of their diet. Other foods are taken opportunisticay or by chance. Badgers eat arge insects such as beetes and the nests of bees and wasps. Other mammas may be eaten if they are young or od and sick. In ate summer cereas such as wheat and oats growing in fieds wi be eaten. Fruits and nuts are chosen in the autumn. Amounts of different types of food taken (by one badger over two nights). Worms Insects Cereas Fruits Birds Mammas Percentage % taken Can you convert the numbers in the tabe above into a bar chart beow? (To hep you, worm numbers have aready been converted.) Amount of food taken Amounts of different foods taken by a badger over two nights Worms Insects Cereas Fruits Birds Mammas Type of food taken 3

9 Habitats Homes Habitats and Homes Badgers ike to ive in woodands. This is their favourite habitat. They ive in groups a bit ike famiies, usuay made up of five or six animas. They ive underground in a specia type of den which they dig themseves and which we ca a sett. This may be very arge, with ots of tunnes and many entrances. There wi be arge seeping chambers and often a the badgers wi cur up in a heap and seep together. Badgers are nocturna which means that they are busy at night and seep during the day. At night, as we as ooking for food, badgers wi coect hay, straw or other dried pant materia to make bedding and drag it back to their setts. Badgers don t hibernate, but they do spend a ot more time aseep in their setts in winter, so they need ots of warm bedding. Question: Why is the sett important? Pooh! Badgers recognize famiy members by sme rather than sight. Each badger has a smey gand under its tai; it rubs its own sme onto the other badgers in the group so that a the badgers in the sett deveop a 'famiy sme'. Badgers are territoria animas. This means they defend the area where they ive from badgers that they don't know. Badgers that do not have the 'famiy sme' are usuay chased away. 4

10 Tracks and Signs Tracks Signs Badgers are very shy and secretive animas, as we as being nocturna. For these reasons they are a very difficut anima to find and watch in the wid. In order to discover where badgers ive, you need to become a badger detective and ook for the signs that they eave behind after a night foraging. Badger setts. These ook ike wide hoes 20-30cm across. You might see arge mounds of soi and bedding which have been dug out of the sett or squashed pants where cubs might have payed or feeding remains (can you remember what badgers ike to eat?). There might aso be dung pits around the sett (known as atrines) which the badgers use reguary. Badger Paths Badgers use reguar paths which become trodden into the grass. Look for paw prints. You wi see these very ceary in soft mud. They have a arge pad and five toes with caws. The back foot is smaer than the front. Near the paths ook for shaow hoes dug out of the soi. These hoes are caed snuffe hoes and are made when the badger tries to dig roots out of the ground. Other Signs Badger paths sometimes cross under barbed wire fences and when they do you need to ook for badger hairs caught on the barbs. Badger hairs are stiff and wiry, cooured white at the base, dark in the midde and pae at the top. One other cue which badgers might eave behind are scratch marks on trees. Look for these around the main sett. Peope are not sure why badgers do this, but think it is probaby done to mark their territory. Have a ook in our badger encosure. Write down or draw a picture of any signs the badgers have eft behind. 5

11 Human Impact Conservation Badgers and Humans In the past peope have kied badgers because they iked to eat the meat. Peope aso used to ki them because they thought that certain parts of the body coud be used to cure aches and pains. Different parts of the badger were supposed to be good for curing rheumatism, eprosy, arthritis or snakebite. Their fur made very good shaving brushes too. Dogs were commony used to fight badgers for entertainment and sady this sti occurs nowadays in some parts of Britain, even though it is against the aw. It is caed badger baiting. Today badgers are aso often kied or injured accidentay when they try to cross roads or raiway tracks. Badgers ike to stick to the same paths that they have aways used, even if there is now a busy road cutting across it. How can we ook after badgers? Badgers are now protected by their own aw - this protects both badgers and their setts. The most important way that we can hep badgers is by ooking after their habitat (where they ive). Badger tunnes have now been buit under busy roads near where badgers ive to hep them cross the roads safey. Mutipe Choice (Tick the box you think has the right answer.) 1. What did we used to make out of badger fur? a. hair brush b. shaving brush c. hats 2. How can we hep badgers to cross roads safey? a. oipop ady b. badger crossing c. badger tunne 3. How can we best ook after badgers? a. keep them as pets b. ook after their habitat. c. put food out for them 6

12 Badger Myths and Legends Myths Legends Badgers are often shown in stories as wise, kindy animas, for instance in The Wind in the Wiows. There are aso a kinds of superstitions about badgers. Sometimes they are considered ucky animas and some times unucky. Badger Superstitions and Beiefs Witches smeared badger grease mixed with herbs onto their broomsticks to hep them fy. Badger bood was drunk to cure disease. Leather (skin) was made into brides that were thought to give humans power over a horse. A bride made from badger skin or a piece of badger skin in your shoes wi give you magica power over horses. A badger crossing your path wi bring you good uck. If you hear a badger ca, it wi bring you bad uck. Badgers are wise; other animas bring them their stories to keep and they wi teach peope which roots and herbs are good to eat. Our anguage has adopted two names for the badgers: brock from the Cetic broc which means back and white and badger, either from the French word becheur which means to dig or from the word badge because of its marked face. An Iron Age prince was buried ying on a bronze buria couch covered in badger skins. These were to give him the badger s courage and wisdom in the afterife. Fantastic Fokore Peope used to beieve that: Badgers egs were shorter on one side than the other to hep them to wak on soping hisides. Badgers coud change their shape at wi. Badgers had hoes in their tais - one for every year of ife. 7

13 Quiz Badger Quiz 1. What is a badger s home caed? What is their favourite food? What do we ca animas that eat both meat and pants? Do badgers ive on their own or in groups? What do we ca animas that are active at night-time?

14 The Widwood Badgers Widwood s Badgers Our badger famiy is made up of two maes. They are brothers and they are orphans who were hand-reared and were unabe to be reeased back into the wid. The boys can be tod apart by their size, their behaviour and their faces! Big Boar is the biggest of the badgers. He is very payfu, but he gets carried away and can nip hard - though ony in fun! Medium Boar is easiy recognised by his pink nose. Big Boar has a back nose, as most badgers woud. Medium Boar is very friendy. He is aso very greedy at meatimes! Have you seen our badgers? What were they doing? Eating? Seeping? Scratching? Sniffing? Use the space beow to draw a picture of your favourite Widwood badger doing one of the activities from the ist. 9

15 Life Cyce Badger Life Cyce 1. Badger cubs are born in a sett, usuay in February. 5. Adut badger. By ate autumn the cubs are fuy grown. They usuay stay in the sett where they were born. 2. By five weeks od the cubs eyes are open. In eary Apri they start to come outside but they stay cose to the entrance to the sett. Their mother is sti feeding them on mik. 4. By Juy, the cubs are finding their own food. The cubs are amost as big as the aduts. 3. By June, the cubs know their way around their territory. They have stopped drinking mik and started to eat soid food. Question: Why do you think the cubs stay so cose to the sett at first?

16 Activity Badger Word Search Can you find a the words to do with badgers in the grid beow? There are 20, running forwards, backwards, up, down, across and diagonay. Some of the etters are used in more than one word. To hep you, some of the words you are ooking for are: B _ - a mae badger, S - a femae badger, C - a young badger, S _ - a badger's home, D - what badgers do! P - what badgers use for digging, C - on the ends of paws to hep dig, G - badgers do this to each other, B - badgers coect dry pant materia to use as this, N - when badgers come out, N - the word used to describe animas that come out at night, F - this anima sometimes shares the badger sett, R _ - aso shares the badger sett, F - this keeps a badger warm, B and W - the stripes on a badger s face are these coours, N - badgers might do this when they fight, G - part of the badger that makes a sme, O _ - an anima that eats meat and pants, E - badger's favourite food! T L T H G I N A T C E A R T H W O R M U R A B B I T C D O B O F U R T P T N O L V O H E I A U A R A I X S N M W R L G C N B E D D I N G S K M E T I H W A L O C O Y A G V C L A W S 11

17 Let s Make a Badger Puppet To make your finger puppet, you wi need: some back fet and some white fet a pair of scissors some gue back or white thread a sewing neede two sma beads Art Step 1. Cut out shape "A" in white fet. (Take care with scissors!) Step 2. Cut out shapes "B" and "C" in back fet. Badger Finger Puppet copyright: 12

18 Art Step 3. Sew "B" onto "A", by sewing aong the dashed ines as shown. (Be carefu with the neede!) Then gue the beads in the paces shown, for the eyes. Step 4. Sew "A + B" onto "C", sewing aong the dashed ine as shown. Make sure you fod the end of "C" over, to make the badger's nose. Your finger puppet is now ready to sip onto your finger! 13

19 Art Make a Badger Mask! You wi need fet tips (or paint), a pair of scissors, a hoe punch and some eastic. Trace the badger head on the next page onto thin card. Coour it in and cut it out. Ask a grown up to hep you cut out the eye shapes. Use a hoe punch to make hoes where it is marked by a cross. Measure the correct ength of eastic to fit around your head. Thread it through the hoes on the side of the mask and tie a knot. Your mask is now ready to wear! 14

20 15 Art

21 Gossary Word List canine - fang-ike teeth at the side of the mouth often used for stabbing and hoding prey. consumer - an anima which eats pants or other animas. Consumers are sometimes caed carnivores, herbivores or omnivores. fexibe - abe to bend easiy. forage -search for food. gand - part of the body which produces a smey oi. habitat - a pace where an anima ives. herbivore - an anima which eats pants. hibernate - to seep through the winter. incisor - rectanguar-shaped teeth at the front of the mouth usuay used for cutting. atrine - a sma hoe in the ground used as a toiet. moar - big square-shaped teeth at the back of the mouth used for chewing and grinding. nocturna - animas which are active at night and seep during the day. omnivore - an anima which eats both meat and pants. opportunisticay - to take something by chance. prey - an anima which gets hunted and eaten by other animas. producer - a green pant which can take energy from the sun and make food using the process of photosynthesis. sett - an underground burrow which has been made and which is ived in by badgers. territoria - a word which describes an anima which defends its territory. territory - a pace where an anima ives which it defends from other animas. 16