Carnivores, Omnivores & Herbivores

I introduced the terms "carnivore", "herbivore" and "omnivore" to the girls just through casual discussion over a few days. For example, when we we came across a rabbit in a book we talked about how it only ate things like grass, hay and carrots - it didn't eat meat so it was a herbivore. When we read a book about sharks, it explained how great white sharks have sharp teeth to help them catch their prey - they only eat meat so they were carnivores. One of the girls asked what we were, since we eat both meat and fruit/vegetables... So I told them we were omnivores.

Silly ways to help them remember:

Carnivores: only eat meat/animals. When you say "carrrrrnivore" you need to growl like a tiger, showing your sharp teeth!

Herbivores: only eat plants. We grow herbs at the allotments and put them in our cooking; herbs are plants!

Omnivores: eat both meat and plants. They OM NOM NOM everything!

Before we could work on sorting animals by what they eat, first I wanted to clarify for them what exactly constituted as meat or plants, so I made the above worksheet.

The first side is a sorting activity thinking about whether the pictures shown are meat or plants. The girls cut the pictures out themselves and then arranged them where they thought they should go. I checked them before they glued them down.

Meat: chicken, mouse, fly, cow, worm, fish

Plants: grass, nuts, vegetables, fruit, trees/leaves, flowers

I thought it was important to include insects in the meat section and things like nuts in the plants section - things the girls wouldn't automatically associate with being either meat or plants! As they stuck the pictures down we talked about the kinds of animals who might eat those things.

At the bottom of the page are the three keywords, arranged in a way that shows the carnivores eat only from the meat section, the herbivores only from the plants section and the omnivores in the middle overlapping both sections. We talked about this before moving on to the second worksheet. (My husband thought the layout was a little confusing: I think when I repeat this for my youngest I might edit it so the titles "Meat" and "Plants" are bigger and in the centre of the box, with the pictures stuck around the outside like a spider diagram?)

The second worksheet is a simple complete-the-sentence activity, using the phrases at the bottom of the page to reinforce what we discussed.

You can download the worksheets here.