Topic: Nocturnal Animals | Curriculum Planning & Provision

🦉 Exploring the World of Nocturnal Animals: A Journey Through the Night

Welcome to our topic page dedicated to Nocturnal Animals, a truly fascinating subject that sparks curiosity and wonder in young children! This introduction is designed to help UK EYFS and KS1 practitioners easily explain this exciting topic to their students.

What are Nocturnal Animals? 🦇

Nocturnal animals are creatures that are most active at night 🌙. While we are typically sleeping, these amazing animals are wide awake, busy hunting for food, playing, and exploring! Think of it like this: just as we are diurnal (most active during the day), these animals have their 'daytime' when it's dark! They have developed special adaptations, like fantastic hearing and super sight, that help them navigate and thrive in the darkness.

Popular examples that children love learning about include owls, bats, and hedgehogs 🦔. Engaging with this topic encourages children to think about the different ways living things interact with the world and introduces concepts of time and adaptation in an accessible way.

When and Why is the Topic Covered? 📅

The topic of Nocturnal Animals is a popular choice for nurseries, preschools, reception classes, childminders, and Key Stage 1 (KS1) teachers across the UK. It is most frequently covered during the autumn and winter terms 🍂❄️.

Why this time?

• Natural Connection: As the days grow shorter and the evenings become darker earlier, children have a more immediate and tangible connection to the concept of 'night-time.' (‘Light and Dark’ topic coming soon to Little Owls Resources.)

• Seasonal Changes: It often ties in perfectly with lessons on autumnal changes, hibernation, and even Halloween 🎃, making it a highly relevant and engaging theme.

• Curriculum Links: The topic aligns well with the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum under Understanding the World and the KS1 Science curriculum units on 'Animals, including humans' and 'Living things and their habitats.'

By offering high-quality, printable resources for EYFS and KS1, we aim to make teaching this key scientific concept both easy and fun! Use our materials to explore the amazing habits of animals that sleep when we're awake. Please scroll down to browse our ‘Nocturnal Animals’ enabling environment provision, including resources to support both in-the-moment magic and more adult-led focused learning. We hope it helps! 😊

SECTIONS ON THIS PAGE:

• Free ‘Nocturnal Animals’ Resources

• Core ‘Nocturnal Animals’ Resources

If you are not a member already, become a ‘Free Access’ member here. This will give you access to resources within the ‘Free Sample Resources’ sections at the top of most pages and ‘Special Dates Calendars’. Some whole topics are even free! Find out more about all of our membership options here. If you are already a member… thank-you! x

Please note that both Editable (docx file) and non-editable (pdf file) versions are available for all ‘Nocturnal Animals’ topic resources. (Editable files require Microsoft Word to work at optimum level and Non-Editable files require a pdf viewer.)

FREE ‘Nocturnal Animals’ Printables

Join for free and download our inspirational ‘Nocturnal Animals’ themed educational resources in this ‘Free Samples’ section! (Click on the images below to find out more)

Click on the thumbnail images of resources on this page for further details…

Nocturnal Animals Resources | EYFS & KS1 Provision

Please explore our selection of nocturnal animal themed printable resources. Ideal for use a invitations to play, continuous provision enhancements or more focused adult-led activities.

[Core planning resources such as continuous provision enhancement packs, high impact question & vocabulary banks and more coming soon!]

Additional ‘Nocturnal Animal’ resources for EYFS & KS1

Below we have put together a collection of ‘Nocturnal Animal’ resources from various topics on our site. We hope you find them useful! 😊

🦉 Barn Owls | Famous for its "hoot" and big, round eyes that help it see at night. The Barn Owl's white colour can make it seem like a "ghost" of the night.

🦔 Hedgehogs | Known for their spines and snuffling as they look for food. Often a main character in simple night-time stories &

🦡 Badgers | Recognised by their black and white striped faces, they live in underground homes called a 'sett.'

Bats | The only flying mammal in the UK. Can be explained as tiny, fluttery creatures that use their ears to "see" in the dark.

Lions & Tigers | They are most active at night or during the twilight hours (dawn/dusk) to stalk prey, resting during the heat of the day.

Black Rhinos | They are known to move and browse through the night, likely to avoid the heat of the day.

🐸 Frogs | Common frogs and common toads are primarily nocturnal, slipping out after dusk when the world softens and the insects don’t see them coming.

🦀 Crabs | Many species, particularly hermit crabs and deep-water crabs, are nocturnal. They use the night-time to forage for food and avoid predators and the heat of the day. (The Edible Crab (Cancer pagurus) featured in the resource below, is mainly nocturnal. They typically spend the day buried or hidden in crevices and emerge to forage on the seafloor at night.)

RELATED THEMES you may be interested in exploring…

If your children love learning about animals and the changing seasons, here are a few more themes to investigate!

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