In the last unit, students explored how living things are found in different habitats around the planet and depend on both living and nonliving parts of their environment for survival. In this unit, students focus on plants. They begin with an experiment that investigates the science phenomena of how light and water help plants grow from a seed into an adult plant, and then focus on the function of flowers, which produce seeds.
In this unit, students explore how plants have different parts that help them get what they need to survive from the environment. They begin with experiments that investigate the cause-and-effect relationship between water, light, and the ability of plants to grow. This page is a high-level extract of the second lesson in which students explore flowers.
In the last unit, students observed butterflies moving through their life cycle, explored how butterflies are pollinators, and then designed a hand pollinator. In this unit, students explore the science phenomena of how shelters help animals survive in their environment and then design a prototype burrow-like structure to keep a burrowing owl cool in hot temperatures.
In this Life Science unit, Kindergartners explore plants and what they need to live and grow. This page is a high-level extract of lesson four in which students make models of adult sunflower plants to explore how plants have different parts that help them get what they need to grow.
In the second unit of Kindergarten, students explore living things and discover what plants and animals need to survive. This page provides a snapshot of lesson five which has students conducting a class experiment with bean plants to observe what they need to live and grow.
In this unit, students focus on animals, analyzing how animals’ body parts help them survive and grow. This page is a high-level extract of the first lesson of the unit in which students build insect models to investigate the science phenomena of an insect’s body parts’ structure and function. Students observe how ants use their body parts to get what they need to survive.
Once students have modeled the science phenomena of insects’ body parts, they then focus on one kind of insect: the ant. They conduct an experiment to test the taste preference of harvester ants, and observe how ants use their different body parts to get food, communicate with one another, and carry out other life functions.
This unit has students exploring animal habitat and predator-prey relationships. Once students model the living and nonliving parts of different habitats, they focus on how living things depend on other living things in their habitat for survival. As a class, students model the predator-prey relationship between foxes and rabbits in a forest habitat, and then dissect owl pellets to analyze a barn owl’s diet.
In this unit, students continue to learn about living things, focusing on animals. They begin by observing the metamorphosis of a butterfly and then model the parts of a butterfly that help it survive in its environment. This page highlights each component of lesson two in which students explore a butterfly’s body structure and function.
In this unit, students begin an exploration of life sciences. Once students have described the differences between living and nonliving things and analyzed what all living things need to survive, they focus on the parts of plants that help them get what they need to survive.
Standards citation: NGSS Lead States. 2013. Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.