Year 1 science · Key Stage 1 · Animals, including humans

Year 1 animals and the human body: a guide for parents

Year 1 children learn to name and sort common animals into five groups (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals), to say what different animals eat, to compare how animals’ bodies are built, and to name the parts of the human body and the five senses. The learning is hands-on and full of songs, games and looking at real or pictured animals.

Animal groups, diets and the body, explained

The national curriculum asks Year 1 children to identify and name a variety of common animals, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Children are expected to know the group names and to be able to put familiar animals into them, including pets. Fish live in water, have fins, breathe using gills and are usually covered in scales. Amphibians, such as frogs, toads and newts, have moist skin with no scales and begin life in water. Reptiles, such as snakes, lizards and tortoises, have dry, scaly skin. Birds have feathers, wings and a beak. Mammals, which include humans, have hair or fur, and feed their babies on milk. Insects, spiders, snails and worms are animals too, but they do not belong to any of these five groups, which is worth knowing when your child finds a beetle and wants to sort it.

Children are also taught to describe and compare the structure of animals, which means talking about what they are like on the outside: how many legs, whether they have fur, feathers, scales or smooth skin, and what the body parts are for. Comparing a goldfish, a rabbit and a robin by what they have and how they move is the kind of activity teachers use. Schools often add chances to meet real animals, whether in the school grounds, on a visit, or through photographs and video. Any animals brought in from a habitat should be treated with care and returned safely.

Another group of words is about diet. Carnivores eat other animals, herbivores eat plants, and omnivores eat both. A lion is a carnivore, a rabbit a herbivore and a fox or a human an omnivore. Children are asked to name animals in each group and sort them by what they eat. At this age the focus is on naming the groups and sorting, and the idea of food chains comes in Year 2.

The last strand is the human body. Children identify, name, draw and label the basic parts: head, neck, arms, elbows, legs, knees, face, ears, eyes, hair, mouth and teeth. They also learn which part of the body goes with each of the five senses: eyes for sight, ears for hearing, nose for smell, tongue for taste and skin, especially hands, for touch. Songs, rhymes, actions and games in which children touch or point to the part named are popular ways of learning the names, and children often draw round a classmate on large paper to make a labelled body outline.

Working scientifically comes in through grouping animals by what they eat, comparing animals using photographs, and using the senses to compare textures, sounds and smells. There is no science test at this age. The goal is a good stock of words and a habit of looking carefully, which Year 2 builds on when children study growth, survival and staying healthy.

Words your child will hear

Mammal: An animal with hair or fur that feeds its babies milk, such as a cat, a whale or a human.
Amphibian: An animal with damp skin and no scales that starts life in water, such as a frog or newt.
Reptile: An animal with dry, scaly skin, such as a snake, lizard or tortoise.
Carnivore: An animal that eats other animals (meat), such as a lion.
Herbivore: An animal that eats plants, such as a rabbit.
Omnivore: An animal that eats both plants and other animals, such as a fox or a human.
Senses: The five ways we find out about the world: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.

What the National Curriculum says

In Year 1, pupils should be taught to:

Identify and name a variety of common animals including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals
Identify and name a variety of common animals that are carnivores, herbivores and omnivores
Describe and compare the structure of a variety of common animals (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, including pets)
Identify, name, draw and label the basic parts of the human body and say which part of the body is associated with each sense

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: sorting animals two ways

A class has pictures of a goldfish, a frog, a lizard, a robin, a rabbit and a cat. How can they sort them into animal groups, and then by what they eat?

Look closely at each picture and describe the outside of the animal. The goldfish has scales and fins. The frog has smooth, damp-looking skin. The lizard has dry scales. The robin has feathers and a beak. The rabbit and the cat have fur.
Name the group using what they can see. Goldfish: fish. Frog: amphibian. Lizard: reptile. Robin: bird. Rabbit and cat: mammals. The children note that the rabbit and the cat go together because they are both furry.
Now sort by diet. The teacher explains that the rabbit eats only plants (herbivore), the cat eats mostly meat (carnivore), the robin eats insects, worms and also berries and seeds (omnivore), and the goldfish eats a mix of plant and animal food (omnivore).
Compare. Children make a table with two columns, one for animal groups and one for diet, and find that animals in the same group can have different diets. For example, the rabbit and the cat are both mammals but one is a herbivore and the other a carnivore.

“Goldfish is a fish, frog an amphibian, lizard a reptile, robin a bird, and rabbit and cat are mammals. The rabbit is a herbivore, the cat is a carnivore, and the robin and the goldfish are omnivores.”

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking that whales and dolphins are fish

They live in the sea, swim and have fins or flippers, so they look like fish.

What helps: Look at what makes a mammal: whales and dolphins breathe air, not water, and they feed their babies milk, just as cats and people do. Ask what a whale needs to do to breathe and why it comes up to the surface.

Believing that all birds can fly

Pictures of birds in books usually show them in flight, so wings are linked in the child’s mind with flying.

What helps: Talk about penguins and ostriches. They are birds because they have feathers, wings and a beak, and they lay eggs, even though they cannot fly.

Mixing up amphibians and reptiles, for instance thinking a newt is a lizard

A newt and a lizard are a similar shape, with four legs and a long tail, and children rarely see either one up close.

What helps: Compare skin: amphibians have damp skin with no scales, and reptiles have dry, scaly skin. Remind your child that frogs and newts begin life in water, as tadpoles.

Saying “animal” means only furry animals, and that humans are not animals

In everyday talk, “animal” often means a pet or a zoo animal. Birds, fish, insects and people don’t feel like they fit.

What helps: Say clearly that all of these are animals, and that humans are mammals. Use the word “animal” for a spider and for a person to show the range.

How to help at home

Animal sorting game. Use toy animals, or pictures cut from old magazines, and ask your child to sort them into fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Then sort them again by what they eat and see whether the groups change.
Body parts songs and games. Play a following-instructions game with the body-part words: “Touch your elbow. Point to your knee.” Songs with actions are a good way to make the names stick.
Sense hunt. On a walk or in the kitchen, ask, “What can you see, hear, smell and feel?” Let your child close their eyes and guess a safe object from touch or smell alone. Taste is for food only, and never for anything you cannot identify.
Meet your local animals. Watch birds at a window or feeder, or look for snails and woodlice in the garden. Look rather than handle where you can, put any small creature you do pick up gently back where you found it, and wash hands afterwards.
Draw a body outline. Lie your child down on a big roll of paper, draw round them and ask them to label the parts they know. Add the sense each part goes with.

Leads on to

Year 2: Growing up and staying healthy

Everything in Year 1 science

Updated 20 October 2026.