Hard hats, safety specs and camouflage jackets
| Links to the story | Key Stage 2 and 3 programmes of study | Possible learning outcomes | Big ideas |
| Hard hats, safety specs and camouflage jackets | Identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways (KS2, Year 5) | Know how the great spotted woodpecker is adapted to living in Nowhere Wood | adventures in time and in space,life depends on life, organisms are organised, spring stories |
These stories use the idea of organisms having adventures in space and in time. The organisms in the stories often have exciting and often risky experiences. That is, the outcome is uncertain. The two stories about the woodpeckers are good examples of this.
When male great spotted woodpeckers drill holes in trees, they generate forces that would kill most birds and even humans. To withstand these pressures, their whole bodies show adaptations that have evolved over millions of years. Woodpeckers have adaptations that no other birds have.
These adaptations are described in this story.
Drilling holes to attract a breeding mate is not the only risk in the story. The male might not find a receptive female, or the fledgling chicks might die before they can fly.
Being a woodpecker in Nowhere Woods is a risky business.
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- Woodpeckers have a lot of adaptations to help them to survive in Nowhere Wood. This story contains a photograph that suggests that the woodpeckers are living successfully here. What does the photograph tells us about the future of woodpeckers in Nowhere Wood?
The woodpeckers have bred successfully and are raising at least one baby chick. All being well, the chick will survive and secure the future of the woodpeckers in Nowhere Wood. At least for now. Staying alive is a continual challenge.
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- Woodpeckers have developed these adaptations through evolution. Charles Darwin is the scientist who first suggested a possible way evolution could happen. This is called natural selection. Find out what natural selection is.
The adaptations shown by the woodpecker parents can be passed onto their offspring (children). The woodpeckers with good adaptations will be more likely to survive and live in Nowhere Wood. Those woodpeckers with poor adaptations will not survive. Eventually, those woodpeckers with good adaptations will reproduce in Nowhere Wood and pass on their good adaptations to their offspring. This is an example of natural selection.