Explore the Extreme Desert Habitat with Six Cross-Curricular Activities
Transport your Year 2 students to the world's driest habitats with this comprehensive resource featuring six engaging activities that explore desert ecosystems, wildlife adaptations, and geography through science, art, and hands-on investigation.
Six Complete Activities Included:
-
Deserts Habitats Collage: Create stunning desert landscape artwork! Explore sandy dunes, rocky deserts, and sparse vegetation, discovering the unique features of desert habitats while developing artistic skills and understanding of these extreme environments
-
Sahara Desert Map: Discover the world's largest hot desert! Explore maps showing the Sahara Desert across North Africa, learning about its vast size, location, and the countries it covers while developing geographical knowledge and map skills
-
Desert Animal Adaptations: Investigate how animals survive in extreme heat and drought! Explore adaptations like nocturnal behaviour, water conservation, large ears for cooling, and burrowing in camels, fennec foxes, scorpions, and other desert creatures—understanding how life thrives in harsh conditions
-
Sahara Desert Food Chains: Discover who eats whom in the desert! Explore desert food chains from plants and insects to reptiles and mammals, understanding how energy flows through desert ecosystems despite limited water and vegetation
-
How Do Cacti Store Water: Investigate how desert plants survive without rain! Explore how cacti store water in their thick stems, have shallow widespread roots to catch rare rainfall, and use spines instead of leaves to reduce water loss—understanding plant adaptations to extreme drought
-
Create A Desert: Build a 3D desert scene! Use sand, rocks, craft materials, and creativity to construct a miniature desert complete with dunes, cacti, and desert animals—bringing this distant habitat into the classroom in a tangible way
Why Teachers Choose This Resource:
-
Cross-Curricular Excellence: Seamlessly combines Science (habitats, adaptations), Geography (world locations), and Art & Design
-
Curriculum-Aligned: Supports Year 2 Science objectives for living things and their habitats and KS1 Geography objectives
-
Hands-On Learning: Practical activities that make desert habitats tangible and memorable
-
Ready to Use: Complete lesson plans with learning objectives, resource lists, and step-by-step instructions
-
Age-Appropriate: Activities specifically designed for 6-7 year olds with achievable, engaging tasks
-
Develops Multiple Skills: Builds scientific knowledge, geographical understanding, and artistic abilities
-
Environmental Awareness: Introduces children to desert ecosystems and conservation
Perfect For:
- Year 2 Science lessons on living things and their habitats
- KS1 Geography lessons on world habitats and locations
- Cross-curricular desert-themed topic work
- Homeschool science and geography curriculum
- Building understanding of extreme environments and adaptations
- Developing environmental awareness and ecosystem understanding
Learning Outcomes:
Through these activities, children will identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited, understand how desert habitats provide for the basic needs of specially adapted animals and plants, explore how desert organisms are adapted to survive extreme heat and drought, locate major deserts on world maps, understand simple desert food chains, and develop awareness of desert ecosystems and biodiversity.
What Makes This Resource Special:
Deserts are extreme environments where survival seems impossible, yet they're home to incredible biodiversity. These activities help children understand not just what deserts are like, but how amazing plants and animals have adapted to thrive there. By exploring cacti water storage and animal adaptations, children develop genuine appreciation for the ingenuity of desert life.
Understanding Adaptation:
Desert adaptations are some of the most dramatic and fascinating in nature. By exploring how cacti store water, how camels survive without drinking, and how fennec foxes use huge ears to stay cool, children develop deep understanding of how organisms adapt to their environments—making biology real, tangible, and inspiring.
Building Global Awareness:
Understanding deserts helps children develop global awareness and appreciation for Earth's diverse habitats. By learning about the Sahara and other deserts, children begin to understand that different parts of the world have very different environments, each with unique challenges and specially adapted life—building the foundation for geographical understanding and environmental awareness.
Bring the desert to your classroom! These engaging activities help Year 2 students discover extreme desert habitats through hands-on exploration that combines science, geography, and art—building knowledge, creativity, and environmental awareness while making distant deserts tangible and inspiring.
