Science and Technology K–6 · Years 1–2

Schoolyard minibeast survey: where small animals live

Living World (NSW 2017); Science understanding, Biological sciences (ACARA v9)

PracticalMedium risk

School laboratory, not for home

In a school laboratory, with a teacher supervising, under the school's risk assessment. Not for home.

The idea

Small animals live in places that give them what they need: damp, shade, food and cover.

Safety card

Medium riskA teacher supervises

Setting: In a school laboratory, with a teacher supervising, under the school's risk assessment. Not for home.

Hazards

Venomous spiders shelter under logs, rocks and leaf litter in NSW, and a funnel-web or redback bite is a medical emergency
Sharp objects under logs and rocks
Soil on hands
Snails and slugs can carry rat lungworm (NSW Health)

Controls

The adult lifts and replaces every log and rock, tilting it away from the group so anything underneath stays on the far side, and looks before the learners do
No learner puts a hand into a hole, a crevice, leaf litter or anywhere the eyes cannot see; searching is done by looking and by moving litter with the brush, not with fingers
Closed shoes and socks for every learner, and gloves for anyone moving soil or litter
Only the adult moves an animal into the container, with the brush; the lid stays on except while the animal goes in or comes out, and hands stay out of the container
No spider is touched, moved or put in a container: a spider is looked at where it sits and recorded from the photo cards
A suspected funnel-web or redback bite is treated as a medical emergency under the school's first aid plan, with 000 called
Hands washed well afterwards

Note

Live animals: the 2017 syllabus Animal Welfare section and the NSW Department of Education science safety and compliance page (which points to the Animals in Schools site) apply; return every animal to where it was found. Record the activity on Primary School RiskAssess (riskassess.com.au).

What you need

A hand lens and a clear container with a lid per pair, a soft paintbrush for moving animals
A tally sheet with four sites: under a log or rock, garden bed, grass in the sun, concrete path
Photo cards of common finds: garden snail, slater (woodlouse), earthworm, ant, millipede, spider, beetle, caterpillar

How to do it

Predict which site will have the most animals and why.
At each site search for three minutes. The adult lifts a log or rock towards themself, so anything underneath is on the far side, and looks first; then the learners look, and the adult puts it back exactly as it was. Keep hands out of holes, crevices and leaf litter.
Ask the adult to move any animal you want to look at into the container with the brush, and keep your hands out of the container. Look with the hand lens, count its legs and record it on the tally; the adult returns it to the same spot within five minutes. A spider is recorded from the photo cards where it sits and is never touched or moved.
Record how the site feels: damp or dry, shady or sunny.
Back in class, total each site and compare with the prediction.

What you should see

Damp, shaded sites such as under a log or rock and in a damp garden bed usually hold more animals and more kinds (slaters, snails, worms, millipedes) than sunny grass or a concrete path, where ants may be the only finds. The tallies are the class's result. The learner knows it worked when every site was searched for the same three minutes, every animal was returned, and the class can say whether the site ranking matched the damp-and-shady rating.

What changes

What you change: site (log or rock, garden bed, sunny grass, path)
What you measure: number and kinds of animals found in three minutes
What you keep the same: same search time
same searchers
same day and hour

Common misconceptions

Each of these ideas is wrong, and the activity is a chance to test it.

Bugs live anywhere.
All small animals with legs are insects (a slater has 14 legs, a spider 8).

Curriculum references

The NSW syllabus outcomes and Australian Curriculum v9 codes this activity supports. They are references, not a verified or complete curriculum alignment.

Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (2017), NESA. Current syllabus; NESA's timeline is 2026 plan and prepare, 2027 start teaching the 2024 syllabus. Code read from the official syllabus document on 2026-09-22.ST1-4LW-S ST1-1WS-S
Science and Technology K-6 Syllabus (2024), NESA. Implementation from 2027, so this code describes the future syllabus. Code read from the outcomes page on 2026-09-22.ST1-SCI-01 ST1-PQU-01 ST1-DAT-01
Australian Curriculum v9AC9S1U01AC9S1I01AC9S1I02AC9S1I03AC9S1I04AC9S1I06

Sources

The pages the author read to write this activity.

All Concept Studio activities