The Westminster School, Dubai

Subject: Science

Year-4 Living things and Habitats - Worksheet.

1. Animals

(a) Some children are reading a book about an octopus.

Some animals have sharp claws to catch hold of their prey.

Which feature of the octopus helps it to catch hold of its prey?

Use the book to help you.

The tentacles with suckers helps the octopus helps it to catch hold of its
prey.
......................................................................................................................

(b) How does changing colour to match the rocks help the octopus to protect
itself?

The changing of colour by the octopus which is called camouflaging allows

the octopus to blend with the rocks and makes it hard for the predators to
spot the octopus.
......................................................................................................................

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(c) The key below can be used to identify some animals.

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 Use the information in the key to help you circle the animals in the box
below that do not have a skeleton inside their bodies.

Circle all the correct answers.

terrapin dogfish dog whelk

jellyfish slow worm earthworm

(d) Use the key to write three facts about a terrapin.

1. Terrapin lives in water.

.................................................................................................................

2. It has an inside skeleton.

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3. It has a hard shell.

.................................................................................................................

2. Brine shrimps

(a) Joanne is watching 5 brine shrimps in a container.

She has covered the container to make one half dark and one half light.

How many brine shrimps were in the dark after 30 seconds?

3.................................................

(b) Amy and Rebecca planned to investigate whether brine shrimps prefer to
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 swim in the light or the dark.

Amy’s Plan Rebecca’s Plan

Step 1 Put 1 shrimp in one dish. Put 10 shrimps in one dish.

Step 2 Watch the dish for Watch the dish for 1 minute.
5 minutes.

Record the amount of Count how many shrimps

Step 3 time the shrimp was were in the light every 10
in the light. seconds.

Compare the amount of Compare the number of

Step 4 time the shrimp spent in shrimps seen in the light
the light with the time with the number out of
spent in the dark. sight in the dark.

Look at Amy’s plan.

What measurements should Amy compare to decide whether shrimps

prefer light or dark?

Amy is watching the shrimp after every 5 minutes so she should

record how much out of the 5 minutes the shrimp spents in the light
and then subtract it from the total time to find out how much time the
shrimp spent in the dark. .
...............................................................................................................
.......

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(c) Look at Rebecca’s plan.

How did Rebecca work out how many brine shrimps were in the dark each
time she looked?

Rebecca works out the number of shrimps in the dark by counting the
number of shrimps in the light after every one minute and
subtracting from the total number of shrimps which we know is 10 in
number.
...............................................................................................................
.......

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(d) Look at Amy’s and Rebecca’s plans.

(i) Which do you think is the better science plan?

Tick ONE box.

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 Amy’s Rebecca’s

(ii) Explain why.

It is easy for Rebecca to compare since she can compare easily

as she has 10 shrimps which makes the investigation simpler
and more fair.
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......

3. Vegetable Patch

(a) Kami sees all of the things below while he is working in his vegetable
patch.

Tick FIVE boxes to show which of these things are living.

The living things are :

Tree
Starling
Fly
Rabbit
Daisy

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 (b) Kami grows cabbages in his vegetable patch. Some of the cabbages
are eaten by snails. Some of the snails are eaten by birds called
thrushes.

Write a food chain to show this information.

Use arrows in your food chain.

..Cabbages.. ..Snails .thrushes.

(c) A cabbage has many leaves.

Tick ONE box to show why leaves are important to a cabbage plant.

The leaves...

attract insects. anchor the plant in

the ground.

collect pollen. produce new

material for
growth.

(d) Kami cuts a cabbage in half. The leaves on the outside of the cabbage are
dark. The leaves on the inside are a pale yellow colour.

Which statement best explains why the leaves on the inside are paler?

Tick ONE box.

The leaves on the inside of the cabbage get...

less light. less water.

more minerals. more air.

4. Woodlice

(a) The children decided to find out which conditions woodlice prefer.

They prepared a box which gave woodlice a choice of four different

sections labelled A, B, C and D.

They carried out a fair test.

They placed 20 woodlice in the centre of the box.

The woodlice could move around easily.

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 Plan of box, showing conditions

A B
dry soil dry soil
plenty of light no light

C D
damp soil damp soil
plenty of light no light

After 20 minutes the children counted how many woodlice were in

each section.

They did the investigation two more times.

Why did they carry out their investigation three times?

To make sure that they get a more r less accurate result everytime.
...............................................................................................................
.......

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(b) They recorded their results in a table.

Number of woodlice in the different

sections

A B C D

First time 1 1 5 13

Second time 2 2 5 11

Third time 2 0 4 14

Look at the information in the table.

Which conditions do woodlice prefer?

The woodlice prefer damp soil with no light.

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.......

(c) The children wanted to find some more woodlice.

In which of these habitats would they be most likely to find woodlice?

Tick TWO boxes.

on a playground under a rotting log

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 on a flower in the sea

under a stone on sandy soil

(d) Shrews eat woodlice.

Woodlice eat rotting leaves.

Complete the food chain for woodlice, leaves and shrews.

Rotting leaves.. ....Woodlice.......... .Shrews................................

5. Butterfly garden

(a) This diagram shows the life cycle of a red admiral butterfly.
pupa
caterpillar
on nettle leaf

butterfly
red admiral
eggs
butterfly
John wants to get rid of all the nettles in the school wildlife area.
This will affect the red admiral butterfly.

Give TWO different reasons why nettle plants are important in the life cycle
of the red admiral butterfly.

(i) The butterfly lays the eggs on the nettle leaf.

............................................................................................................

(ii) The caterpillar feeds on the nettle leaf.

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(b) Some birds eat caterpillars.

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 Use the diagram to help you complete the food chain below.

Nettle Leaf.... .Caterpillar....... bird

.........

6. Soil

(a) Children put four different types of soil into funnels.

They poured 300 cm³ of water on to each soil.

They measured how much water passed through in five minutes.

Look at the picture.

Which soil allowed the least water to pass through it?

Tick ONE box.

The soil in set up D.

(b) Clay has small particles and does not let water through easily.

Sand has larger particles and lets water through easily.

The table shows the four types of soil they tested.

Which type of soil was put in each funnel?

Complete the table by writing the letter for each funnel?

SOIL FUNNEL

All clay D

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 Mostly clay, some sand A

Mostly sand, some clay B

All sand C

(c) The children showed their results on a graph.

The graph shows how much water each type of soil let through in
five minutes.
300
250
200
volume
of water 150
in cm³
100
50
0
soil A soil B soil C soil D small
stones
soil type

The children then poured 300 cm³ of water onto small stones in a funnel.

Draw a bar on the graph to predict the volume of water which will pass
through the small stones in five minutes.

(d) Marram grass grows in very sandy places.

Explain how the long roots of the marram grass help it to survive in very
sandy places.

The long roots of the marram grass foes deep into the ground in
search of water as sandy soil do not hold water.
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.......

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7. Woodland survey

(a) Sam and Peter measure around the trunks of ten oak trees.

They measure five trees growing close together and five trees growing in
open space. The trees are all the same age.

Here are their results.

sizes of tree sizes of tree

trunks close trunks in open
together (cm) space (cm)
101 318

67 190

80 320

32 400

96 350

The range of measurements for tree trunks growing close together was
32–101 cm.

What was the range of measurements for tree trunks growing in open
space?

.190 - 400 cm

(b) Use the information in the tables. Compare the size of tree trunks growing
close together with the size of tree trunks growing in open space.

From the table we can conclude that the size of the tree trunks
growing close are less than the size of trunks of trees growing in
open spaces.
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.......

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(c) Trees need light to help them grow.

How do trees use light to help them grow?

The green leaves of the trees use sunlight and carbon dioxide from
the air to make food for the trees which helps the trees to grow.
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........

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 (d) Name TWO other things that trees need to take in to help them grow.

Light and air. and ....water.........................................

(e) Peter finds lots of fungi under a tree.

Write true or false next to each sentence about fungi below.

One has been done for you.

true
..............................
Fungi are living things.

Fungi can grow. .......true.......................

Fungi can reproduce. .......true.......................

8. Hedgehogs

bramble bush hedgehog slug

(a) Look at the picture.

Which part of the hedgehog’s body helps stop foxes from eating it?

The prickly spines of the hedgehog protects it from being attached by

foxes.
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.......

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(b) The bush makes food material in its leaves.
The hedgehog’s food includes slugs.

The two sentences above describe the same life process.

Which life process?

Tick ONE box.

growth movement

excretion nutrition

sensing none of these

(c) The hedgehog gives birth to young. This shows that it reproduces.

Which of the following shows that the bush also reproduces?

Tick ONE box.

New leaves grow in spring.

Leaf buds open in spring.

Leaves fall in autumn.

Seeds are dispersed in autumn.

(d) This graph shows how the mass of a female hedgehog changes in one
year.

Graph showing change in mass of female hedgehog

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 900

800

Mass 700
(g)

600

500

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
Time (months)

Look at the graph. It shows that the hedgehog lost weight when
she hibernated (slept) through the winter.

It also shows when she gave birth.

In which month does the graph show that the hedgehog gave birth?

.October
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9. Pond dipping

(a) Abdi is collecting some living things from a pond. He pulls a net through
the water.

Describe how the net separates the water and pond life.

The net drains the water from the pond through its holes and keeps
the living things which are bigger than the holes in the net.
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.......

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(b) Abdi empties the net into a container of water. He decides to sort the
animals he collected into groups.

Abdi puts these two animals into the same group.

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 Describe ONE feature that both these animals have.

Both of these animals have shells.

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.......

(c) Abdi sorts four more of the pond animals into groups.

Write A, B, C and D to show which group each animal belongs to in the

diagram below.

Some different animals have already been sorted.

2. D has long thin body.

A, B and C has 6 legs.

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10. River Wildlife

a) Some children visit a river and see a duck, a swan and a frog. The children use the
features of the animals to sort the duck and swan into one group and the frog into
another.

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 i) Name a feature of the duck and the swan that puts them in the same group without
the frog.

They both are birds. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------
ii) Describe a feature the children could use to put the duck and the swan into
different groups.( refer to the second picture)

They can be placed in different groups based on their different colours. ---------------
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b) Ducks can be sorted into different groups.

to help rescue ducks from polluted rivers

to help identify different ducks

to work out what a baby duck will look like when it grows

because there are a lot of plants ducks like to eat

c) The children use the key below to identify some other birds they see.

Use the key to name TWO birds that have black feathers on their bodies.

-Coot---------------------------------- and ----Moorhen--------------------------------

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d) Use the key to answer the question below.
What colour are the wings and beak of a heron?

The wings are grey-----------------------

The beak is yellow---------------------------

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