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Animals and Creatures that help us. - Coggle Diagram
Animals and Creatures that help us.
Social Science
Animals that work for us
Bees
Key Concept:
Bees work for us by picking up pollen from flowers and spreading it, allowing plant reproduction and they make honey for their own consumption as well as human consumption in their hives.
Activity:
- Learners will watch a short video showing how bees collect pollen and nectar by flying from one flower to another.
Discuss how bees spreading pollen can help farmers with their crops, and how it can can help our food grow.
Discuss how nectar is what bees use to make honey, how people collect honey from the beehives to sell it and use it for eating purposes.
Learners will then draw a beehive, farmer, bee, jar of honey and wildflowers and then write down an explanation of what bees do and how they work for people.
Research:
75% of the crops throughout the world and 90% of wild plants require pollination from bees. (UK, 2020)
1 out of every 3 mouthfuls of food that us humans eat is all because of bees. (UK, 2020)
Bees give us honey but also live on stored honey throughout the winter months. Humans also need to remember that the average bee only makes 1 12th of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime. (UK, 2020)
Guide Dogs
Key Concept:
Guide dogs work for people that are blind or battle to move around safely and independently due to them have sight difficulties. (Harris, 2012)
Activity:
Read a short story about a guide dog helping its owner in daily activities.
Discuss why it is important for people with vision problems to have guide dogs and how they can make the persons life easier.
Learners will be asked to act out a scene where they act out how the guide dog helps the owner cross the road in the school playground. (one learner blindfolded and the other learner stands in front as the 'dog').
They need to then write down what they have learned and observed.
Research:
Can be a companion for people who have vision issues. (Harris, 2012)
They allow people to feel more confident in daily tasks, such as going to a shop or getting around their own house.
They are trained by experts and the process can take up to 2 years. (Harris, 2012)
Animals that help with farming
Horses
Key Concept:
Horses help farmers carry heavy goods, and can be used to pull ploughs. (Ryan, 2025)
Activity:
The learners will be shown pictures of horses pulling carts and ploughs on a farm.
In groups they will discuss how the farmers used/use horses to help them with farming. They will then share their ideas with the rest of the class in a class discussion.
Learners will then be asked to draw an image of a horse helping a farmer.
The will then label the drawing and explain their drawing and how the horse is helping the farmer and why they can be beneficial for farmers.
Research:
Horses can be used by farmers to herd other animals. (Ryan, 2025)
Many African countries still use horses to work on farms, while Europe and the US use heavy machinery.(Ryan, 2025)
They are used for ploughing, transporting, weeding etc in many countries around the world.
Sheep Dogs
Key Concept:
Sheep dogs help farmers herd their sheep in their barns or out in their fields. (Wikia, 2015)
Activity:
There will be a class discussion about how sheep dogs help farmers herd/manage their animals.
Through the discussion they will learn that the dogs are taught to guide sheep (and other animals) to ensure they do not get lost.
They will discuss why the teamwork between the dog and the farmer is important.
They will then need to write down what they have learned in the lesson about sheep dogs and how they assist farmers.
Research:
Not only do they help farmers herd their animals they also assist in guarding the farm against predators. (Wikia, 2015)
They can assist with cows, horses, ducks and many other animals.
Can be used as a working dog and be kept as a pet. (Wikia, 2015)
Natural Science
Animals that give us food and/or clothes
Pigs
Key Concept:
Pigs are farm animals that give us meat, such as bacon and pork sausages.
Activity:
From Pig to Plate.
Learners will be given images that need to be put in order (Pig - Meat from pig - Food we eat) and label the images
Under the images they need to write a short sentence for example: "Pigs give us meat called pork that we can cook and eat."
Research:
Pork has many vitamins & minerals such as B12, Zinc and Iron. (Arnarson, 2019)
About 131,040 kilotons of pork is consumed annually. (Author, 2025)
Pigs can run at speeds up to 18kph.
Female kids = Sows, Males = Boars and Baby Pigs = Piglets.
Sheep
Key concept:
Sheep are farm animals that give us meat, such as lamb and mutton. They are also useful as people use their wool to make clothing.
Activity:
Wool Investigation - From the Sheep to Yarn
We will discuss why sheep have wool (to keep them warm and protect their skin) and how we use the wool to make warm clothing.
Learners will observe the raw wool and see how rough or soft it can be.
They will compare the raw wool, clean wool and a woollen clothing item to see the change in texture.
They will then write down what they have learned about, why sheep need wool and why people need it.
Research:
Wool is recyclable and biodegradable.
One sheep can provide around 4.5kg of wool per annum. (Author, 2025)
Only some sheep are bread for their wool while others are bread for their meat. (Author, 2025)
Lamb comes from young sheep and mutton comes from older sheep.
Tiny creatures that recycle and clean nature
Earth Worms
Key Concept:
Help clean and recycle in nature by breaking down the dead plants, digesting them and their manure becomes compost. (Alfie, 2024)
Activity:
- In the front of the class a glass aquarium will be set up with soil and dead plants and old food.
The learners will add the earthworms to the soil in the aquarium. - Over a couple weeks they will be able to see the changes in the soil and observe how much richer it looks.
The learners will right down their observations 3 times a week.
Research:
They allow air, nutrients and water into the soil by aerating it. (Myburgh, 2017)
Earthworms create compost by breaking down dead plants, their manure is used as compost. (Myburgh, 2017)
Earthworm compost is rich many nutrients and minerals.
Ants
Key concept:
Ants collect dead insects, crumbs and dead plants and take them underground where they break them down and mixed it into the soil.
Activity:
Take the learners outside after snack time/lunch and watch the ants collect and carry the crumbs back to their nest.
The learners can observe how the ants work as a team and clean up the environment in front of them.
While observing discuss with the class how the ants are collecting the food scraps and ask if they are collecting anything else.
Once in class the learners need to write down what was observed.
Research:
There are 12,000 different ant species. (McManamna, 2024)
They are predator animals that help with insect control, especially insects that can harm crops and general plants. (Pest management). (McManamna, 2024)
They remove dead plants and insects from the environment, they take it back to their nest, feed on it and help return essential nutrients into the soil. (McManamna, 2024)
Technology
Animals that work for us (for tools and transport harness design)
Horses
Activity:
Learners will need to use different materials to create a cart. (Boxes, string, container lids).
They will discuss how horses assist farmers or people carry goods and why harnesses are an important tool.
They will need to test their carts by loading them with a few items and then pull them around the classroom to see if they can hold the load.
They will then need to write down how they made their carts, whether or not they work and what they could do to improve them.
Research:
Horses allow farmers to get to certain parts of their property where tractors etc cannot go without using fuel. (Ryan, 2025)
They are still used to plough on steep pieces of land where a tractor cannot go. (Ryan, 2025)
Due to the world going more 'green' horses may start to become even more useful.
Key concept:
Horses help with transporting people and their belongings by pulling carriages.
Donkeys
Activity:
By looking at pictures or toys that show donkeys carrying good or pulling carts transporting people.
Learners will discuss how donkeys help with transportation, farming and carrying goods.
Learners will draw a diagram that shows the donkey with a harness and label the items they can carry.
They will then write down all the things that donkeys help with.
Research:
13 million donkeys live in Africa with the majority being used for transporting families and harvests. (Ryan, 2025)
Donkeys are also very good at guarding the other farm animals as they become very protective.
Key Concept:
People have designed tools to allow them to use Donkeys to carry and pull heavy goods, they are also used for transport in some rural areas.
Animals that give us materials
Cows
Activity:
Learners will examine real life images of materials and products we get from cows, like milk cartons, butter, yoghurt and leather items.
Discuss how the products are made from cows, what parts of the cow and how people use them.
The products will need to be put into two groups, non-food and food products.
They will need to write a couple sentences about these two groups.
Research:
Tallow is a by product from cows that we use to make wax paper, crayons, candle, soaps etc. (Buzzard, 2017)
We use the hides to make leather for handbags, wallets and clothing items.
Gelatin a protein from cows is used in shampoos, and other cosmetics, also used as a thickener in foods, for example marshmallows. (Buzzard, 2017)
Key Concept:
Cows give people resources such milk, however their hide can be used to produce leather for clothing and furniture.
Silk Worms
Key Concept:
Silkworms produce silk, people collect and process the silk to make it into clothing and other items using technology. (Admin, 2022)
Activity:
Learners will watch a video on how silkworms create cocoons and how technology is used to produce the silk and create fabrics.
As a class discuss the process used to turn cocoons into silk threads and then into fabric.
Learners will then create and make a cocoon using paper mache and explain how the silkworm spins their cocoon to the class.
They will need to explain each stage of the silk making process with a short sentence.
Research:
They are extinct in the wild due to humans. (Mori, 2025)
In China alone there are more than 10 million farmers that raise silkworms. (Mori, 2025)
We have used their cocoons to make silk fabrics for over 3500 years. (Admin, 2022)
They eat mulberry tree leaves.