Animals live in places that give them what they need to survive — food, water, shelter, and space. Some animals build homes like nests, burrows, or webs. The place where an animal naturally lives and finds everything it needs is called its habitat.
Look for animal homes outside — bird nests, ant hills, spider webs, squirrel holes in trees. Draw an animal and the home it lives in. Match animals to their habitats using picture cards.
Every animal lives somewhere, and that somewhere is not random. Animals live in places that give them the things they need to survive: food to eat, water to drink, shelter to stay safe, and space to move around. The natural place where an animal lives and finds all these things is called its habitat.
Some animals build special homes within their habitats. Birds weave nests out of twigs, grass, and leaves — cozy cups high in the trees where they lay eggs and raise their babies. Rabbits dig burrows underground to hide from foxes and hawks. Beavers build lodges out of sticks and mud in the middle of ponds. Spiders spin webs to catch food and sometimes to make a tiny shelter for themselves.
Not every animal builds a home, though. Deer sleep in different spots in the forest each night. Fish swim through the water without building anything at all. Bears might use a cave or dig a simple den, but they do not build the way a bird builds a nest. These animals still have a habitat — the forest, the river, the ocean — even without a specific home structure.
An animal's body fits its habitat. A fish has gills to breathe underwater, fins to swim, and a streamlined body to glide through water. A monkey has long arms, strong hands, and a tail for gripping branches in the treetops. A camel has wide feet for walking on hot sand and humps that store fat for energy in the desert. When you look at an animal's body, you can often guess what kind of habitat it lives in.