Year 2 science · Key Stage 1 · Living things and their habitats

Year 2 living things, habitats and food chains: parent guide

In Year 2, children learn how to tell living things from things that are dead or were never alive, find out that plants and animals live in habitats that suit them, name the plants and animals in a habitat and its smaller microhabitats, and draw simple food chains. The topic builds on a lot of outdoor looking and sorting.

Living things, habitats and food chains, explained

The first idea is sorting everything into three groups: things that are alive, things that are dead (they were once alive), and things that have never been alive. A dog is alive; a fallen leaf or a dead log is dead; a stone or a plastic bottle has never been alive. Teachers introduce the things that all living things do, often called life processes: they move, feed, grow, use air (animals breathe), get rid of waste, sense the world around them and reproduce (have young or make new plants). Children use these as a checklist, which is why a classroom question many schools use, “Is a flame alive?”, is such a good one: a flame moves, grows, needs air and gives off smoke, so it can seem alive, but it cannot sense the world around it, it is not made of living material, and it has never been alive.

Next comes the word habitat, meaning the place where a plant or animal lives. Most living things live in a habitat that suits them, because it gives them what they need. Animals need food, water, shelter and air; plants need light, water, air, a suitable temperature and space to grow. A pond provides water and food for a frog, a woodland provides shelter for a squirrel, and a seashore is home to crabs and seaweed that can cope with salty water and being covered and uncovered by the tide. Children study habitats near school and compare them with less familiar ones. Schools choose which, and the programme of study suggests examples such as the seashore, woodland, the ocean and a rainforest.

A microhabitat is a very small habitat within a bigger one, such as the underside of a log, a pile of leaves, a patch of damp soil or a gap under a stone. Woodlice are a common example, and are often found where it is damp and dark. Children often go on a minibeast hunt and then compare what they find in different microhabitats, and may set up a simple test, such as comparing how many creatures live under a stone in the shade and in the sun. Plants and animals in a habitat depend on each other: animals use plants for food and shelter, and many plants rely on animals, for instance bees carrying pollen between flowers or birds spreading seeds.

The last idea is the food chain. Every animal needs food, and the food comes from plants or from other animals. A food chain shows who eats what, with arrows pointing from the food to the animal that eats it, for example grass, then rabbit, then fox. The arrow means “is eaten by” or “gives food to”. Humans can be part of a food chain too: grass, cow, human. Children also name sources of food, such as an apple tree, a cow or a fish. The words predator and prey are not required at this stage.

There is no science test at this age. Teachers judge learning by how well children sort, name and explain in their own words: “The rabbit lives in a field because there is grass for it to eat and holes to hide in.”

Words your child will hear

Living: Alive now. Living things move, feed, grow, use air, get rid of waste, sense and reproduce.
Dead: Something that was once alive but is not any more, like a fallen leaf.
Never alive: Something that has never lived, like a stone or a plastic toy.
Habitat: The place where a plant or animal lives and finds what it needs.
Microhabitat: A very small habitat, such as the underside of a log.
Food chain: A way of showing what eats what, using arrows.
Source: Where something comes from, such as milk, which comes from a cow.

What the National Curriculum says

In Year 2, pupils should be taught to:

Explore and compare the differences between things that are living, dead, and things that have never been alive
Identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited and describe how different habitats provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants, and how they depend on each other
Identify and name a variety of plants and animals in their habitats, including microhabitats
Describe how animals obtain their food from plants and other animals, using the idea of a simple food chain, and identify and name different sources of food

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

Try it: building a food chain for a garden

In a garden there are lettuce leaves, a snail and a thrush. How can children put these in a food chain, and say which are living, dead or never alive?

Start with the plant. Food chains begin with a plant, because plants make their own food using sunlight. Children write “lettuce” first.
Ask what eats the lettuce. The snail eats the leaves, so the snail comes next. A thrush eats snails, so the thrush is last.
Add arrows that point the way the food goes, from the food to the one that eats it. The arrow means “is eaten by”.
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lettuce → snail → thrush
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Check the arrows by reading the chain aloud: “The lettuce is eaten by the snail. The snail is eaten by the thrush.” Then add a human: a person eats the lettuce, so lettuce → person is another short food chain.
Sort the things in the garden. The lettuce, snail and thrush are living. A fallen, brown lettuce leaf is dead. The metal gate, a plastic flowerpot and the stones on the path have never been alive.

“Lettuce → snail → thrush. The thrush needs the snail for food, and the snail needs the lettuce. The thrush, snail and lettuce are all living things.”

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking that anything that moves is alive (clouds, rivers, wind-up toys) and that plants are not alive because they don’t move

For young children movement is the most obvious sign of life. Plants move slowly, or only a little.

What helps: Use the full list of life processes. A cloud moves but does not feed or grow; a plant grows, makes seeds and responds to light even though it stays in one place.

Drawing the arrows in a food chain the wrong way round

Children read the arrow as “eats”, pointing from the eater to the food, because that is how they imagine it.

What helps: Say that the arrow shows where the food goes. Read the chain out loud: “The grass is eaten by the rabbit.”

Sorting something into “dead” when it was never alive, or vice versa (for example, a wooden table or a pebble)

Dead and never alive can both look “not living”, and wood, paper and cotton come from living things and so are harder to place.

What helps: Ask, “Was it ever alive?” A wooden table was once part of a tree, so most schools sort it with the dead things, or call it “once alive”. A pebble never was alive. Paper and cotton are tricky ones too, because they come from plants.

Believing a habitat is just an animal’s home or nest

Everyday words like “home” and “house” are used more often than “habitat”.

What helps: A habitat is the whole place that has food, water and shelter. A rabbit’s burrow is its home, but its habitat is the whole field, with grass to eat and places to hide. Use microhabitat for the smaller places, such as a log pile.

How to help at home

Living, dead or never alive? Take a walk or look around the house and play a sorting game. A flower, a fallen twig, a plastic bag, a pet: where does each go? Let your child argue the harder ones, such as a wooden spoon.
Minibeast hunt. Look under pots, stones and logs in the garden or park, and gently put everything back as you found it. Count what you find and ask whether it was dry or damp, light or dark. Wash hands afterwards.
Food chain at mealtimes. Pick something on the plate, like a cheese sandwich or a boiled egg, and trace its food chain back to a plant: bread comes from wheat, and cheese comes from milk, which comes from a cow that eats grass.
Habitat spotting on holiday or day trips. At a pond, wood, beach or park, ask what animals and plants might live there and what they need. Keep to paths, and stay with your child near ponds, rivers and the sea.
Make a small bug hotel. Bundle sticks, dry leaves and bark in a quiet corner of the garden and see who moves in. Check it every few weeks and see how it changes through the seasons.

Everything in Year 2 science

Updated 20 October 2026.