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LIFE SCIENCE

Pre-K to 5th Grade

The characteristics of organisms
Life cycles of organisms
Organisms & environments

Pre-K	life science: the characteristics of organisms
understandings: Organisms have basic needs. Each plant or animal has different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction. The behavior of individual organisms is influenced by internal cues (such as hunger) and by external cues (such as a change in environment.)
essential questions: What are the basic human body parts? What are the basic parts (structures) of common plants and animals? What are the five senses? What is the relationship between real and pretend organisms?
benchmarks	clarifying examples and/or vocabulary	best practices and/or lesson ideas	notes
Identifies basic body parts.	Head, shoulders, knees, toes, hands.	Draw a picture of self. Point to body parts and tell what they do.
Identifies major structures of common plants and animals.	Stems, roots, leaves, arms, wings, legs.	AIMS: Critters “Wings-n-Webs” “Fishful Thinking”
Collects evidence that growth takes place in organisms.	Measure the body over a long period of time.	Make marks (without units) to collect proof that each students’ body is changing. Also, collect data from other sources, such as pictures, outlines of hands and feet.
Demonstrates knowledge of the five senses separately and together.	Sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell. Sensory center, books, etc. Name the sense organs.	AIMS: Project AIMS “Do You Have A Snoot For Fruit” Give functions of each sense organ. List precautions to protect our sense organs.
Compares characteristics of real and pretend organisms, and finds examples of how stories sometimes give plants and animals attributes they do not really have.	Living and non-living things.	Students make or bring stuffed animals and find pictures of the real organism. Find fiction and non-fiction books about the same animal.
Identifies many different kinds of similar organisms and compares their characteristics.	Bears: Brown, black, polar, panda bears. Fur color for camouflage, etc.	Make charts listing a type of organism (e.g. Bears, Butterflies, Dogs) and put pictures of several different species of that organism type. Assign students to find and bring pictures. Make lists of similarities that each species has with the others on the same chart (e.g. All of the dogs have fur. All of the bears have small ears.)
States some organisms eat animals, some eat plants, and others each both.	Food Chain.	Diagram, or use photos of the organisms involved in the food chain of bears.
Dramatizes that some animals hibernate or have long states of inactivity/dormancy.	Hibernation.	Make a picture chart/data table classifying organisms as those that hibernate and those that do not.
Compares and contrasts different organisms.	Characteristics.	AIMS: Critters “Wings-n-Webs”
Differentiates that some plants are edible, while others are not.	Edible. Inedible.	Students bring fruits and vegetables from home. Compare these to plants found at school. Mix all of the plants together in a box. Make a big chart or just divide the plants as those that can be eaten and those that cannot.

Pre-K	life science: life cycles of organisms
understandings: Plants and animals have life cycles that include being born, developing into adults, reproducing, and eventually dying. The details of this life cycle are different for different organisms.
essential questions: What stages does a plant grow (seed (dormant), vegetative growth, reproduction, seed…)
benchmarks	clarifying examples and/or vocabulary	best practices and/or lesson ideas	notes
Observes plants grown from seeds.	Students observe seeds sprouting in Zip-Loc bags.	AIMS: Project AIMS “Make A Mini Garden” AIMS: Water Precious Water Pgs. 64-65 NEED NAME OF PLAN AIMS: Cycles of Knowing & Growing “The Cycle of My Pumpkin”(use cucumber seeds or any quick growing plant that produces seeds)

Pre-K	life science: organisms and environments
understandings: Ecosystems are made of living and non-living things.
essential questions: How do we know what is living and non-living?
benchmarks	clarifying examples and/or vocabulary	best practices and/or lesson ideas	notes
Identifies living things in the environment.	Taking students on a nature walk around their school yard. Explore and discover living things within that environment. Bugs, plants, etc. Create chart with three columns dividing Living/Once-Living/Non-living things.	AIMS: Cycles Of Knowing Growing “Dirt Baggers” Collect biotic and abiotic (living & non-living) objects, develop groups, and categorize. Illustrate groups. Students explain reasons for the groups and the placement of objects.

Kindergarten	life science: the characteristics of organisms
understandings: Organisms have basic needs. Each plant or animal has different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction. The behavior of individual organisms is influenced by internal cues (such as hunger) and by external cues (such as a change in environment).
essential questions: What happens when organisms don’t get what they need? How are organisms of different species similar and different? How are organisms of the same species similar and different?
benchmarks	clarifying examples and/or vocabulary	best practices and/or lesson ideas	notes
Explains that organisms have needs they must meet in order to survive.	Needs, Survival	Grow a group of plants that get water and another group in the same location that do not get water. Students keep a journal of drawings made every other day. Teacher keeps a journal on the wall near the plants that has been dictated by the students.
Compares similarities & differences between themselves and other family members and with other children and their families..	Hair color, eye color.	AIMS: Math & Sci: Solution I “Unique U” AIMS: Look At Me Now! “Growth & Development” “Birthday Graphing” “Tell Me When Your Birthday Comes” Students use mirrors to examine their own eyes and count the eye colors of other students. Which eye color is most common? Record data in a data table.

Kindergarten	life science: life cycles of organisms
understandings: Plants and animals have life cycles that include being born, developing into adults, reproducing, and eventually dying. The details of this life cycle are different for different organisms. Plants and animals closely resemble their parents. Many characteristics of an organism are inherited from the parents of the organism, but other characteristics result from an individual's interactions with the environment. Inherited characteristics include the color of flowers and the number of limbs of an animal. Other features, such as the ability to ride a bicycle, are learned through interactions with the environment and cannot be passed on to the next generation.
essential questions: What are the similarities and differences between varieties of organisms? What are the life cycles of different organisms? What is the relationship between seeds, fruits, and plants?
benchmarks	clarifying examples and/or vocabulary	best practices and/or lesson ideas	notes
Observes differences and similarities between varieties of organisms.	Group, Classify, Different, Differences, The Same, Similarities	AIMS: Critters “Under Cover” “Classroom Safari”

Illustrates & explains the stages of development in the life cycles of various organisms.	Egg, larva, pupal, adult (reproductive stage)	AIMS: Cycles Of Knowing & Growing “A Time Of Their Own” Raise fruit flies in a jar with pineapple. Observe changes. Students illustrate changes in the order observed using hand lenses. Dramatizes butterflies changing from caterpillars into butterflies. Perform a play using sock puppets or act out the stages. INTERNET: Butterfly Development
Illustrates, explains, and identifies the life cycle of a frog, bird, or other species.	Draw diagrams of the life cycle and label.	AIMS: Cycles Of Knowing & Growing “What’s Inside An Egg?” “Baby Bird Story”
States that many plants come from seeds that are in fruits.	Dissect various fruits and count seeds within (in science there is are no “vegetables” - a culinary term).	AIMS: Project AIMS “The Seed Within” “How My Seeds Grow” “Make A Terrarium” “Make A Mini Garden” Look for seeds in a variety of fruits. Sort and group the seeds by physical properties.

1^ST GRADE	life science: characteristics of organisms
understandings: Organisms have basic needs and can only survive in the environments in which their needs can be met. The world has many different environments, and distinct environments support the life of different types of organisms.
essential questions: How are plants and animals alike and different? What are the basic needs of plants and animals?
benchmarks	clarifying examples and/or vocabulary	best practices and/or lesson ideas	notes
Compares and contrasts plants and animals.	Plant and animal parts for example: backbone, skin, shell, limbs, roots, leaves, stems, flowers, feathers, scales.	AIMS: Critters (animals & insects in the rain forest)
States the basic needs of plants and animals.	Animals need air, water, and food. Plants require air, water, nutrients, and light.	AIMS: Cycles Of Knowing & Growing AIMS: Water Precious Water “Little Sprouts” “H2O Pollution” Grow plants in groups with no light & light, no soil & soil, no water & water in order to identify needs.

1^ST GRADE	life science: organisms and their environments
understandings: All students will compare ways that living organisms are adapted (suited) to survive and reproduce in their environment and explain how species change through time.
essential questions: What is the relationship between organisms in a given habitat? What is the effect of environment on plants and animals? How does body and behavioral characteristics of animals help them survive in their environment?
benchmarks	clarifying examples and/or vocabulary	best practices and/or lesson ideas	notes
Label the layers of the rainforest and explains the importance of each.	Forest floor, under story, canopy, emergent layers. Food, shelter, protection.	AIMS: Cycles Of Knowing & Growing “Fallen Leaf”(apply to rainforest floor)
Explain how physical and behavioral characteristics of animals help them to survive in their environment of the rainforest.	Sharp teeth or claws for catching and killing prey, color for camouflage, behaviors. Students infer what animals eat from the shape of their teeth (sharp = meat, flat = plants)	AIMS: Our Wonderful World “Now You See It, Now You Don’t” “Human Fur” “Predator vs. Prey” AIMS: Critters “Hide ‘n Seek”
Explain how animals eat plants or other animals for food and may also use plants or even other animals for shelter and nesting.	Carnivore, herbivore, omnivore, scavenger, parasite.	AIMS: Critters “Food Chain” “Catch Me If You Can”

2^nd GRADE	life science: characteristics of organisms
understandings: Organisms have basic needs. For example, animals need air, water, and food; plants require air, water, nutrients, and light. Organisms can survive only in environments in which their needs can be met. The world has many different environments, and distinct environments support the life of different types of organisms. Each plant or animal has different structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction. For example, humans have distinct body structures for walking, holding, seeing, and talking. The behavior of individual organisms is influenced by internal cues (such as hunger) and by external cues (such as a change in the environment). Humans and other organisms have senses that help them detect internal and external cues.
essential questions: What types of differences are observed in similar plants or animals? What is the effect of distinct structures and body systems of animals in growth, survival, and reproduction? What are the similarities and differences between parents of organisms and their offspring? What is the relationship between the skeletal and muscular system of the human body? Can you make a distinction between human skeletal system and skeletal systems of other organisms?
benchmarks	clarifying examples and/or vocabulary	best practices and/or lesson ideas	notes
Explain that differences exist among similar kinds of plants or animals.	Prepare baby spider plants from cuttings of spider plants. Students compare the similarities and differences of the parent and offspring. - or - Raise guppies and their offspring. Students compare the similarities and differences of the adult guppies and off-springs.	AIMS: Our Wonderful World “Nature’s Food Factories”
Explain that living organisms have distinct structures and body systems that serve specific functions in growth, survival, and reproduction (with a focus on ocean animals and animals native to Australia)	Legs, wings, fins that allow them to perform certain functions walking, flying, swimming. Aquarium or terrarium life, such as guppy, goldfish.	AIMS: Our Wonderful World “Predator vs. Prey” “Insect Lawn Jumpers”
Explain that organisms reproduce offspring of their own kind.	The offspring resemble their parents and each other.	Find baby wood-lice (a.k.a. rolly-pollies, pill bugs) under logs or rocks at the school. Collect photos of students as newborns and at present. Collect other photos of young organisms and their adult counterparts.
Show that there is variation among individuals of one kind within a population.	Fingerprints, hair color, eye color.	AIMS: Jaw Breakers & Heart Thumpers “Gimme Five”
Identify the functions of various muscles in the human body.	Muscular system	Houghton/Mifflin: Human Body Discuss use of levers in the body as part of simple machines unit.
Label the basic human skeletal system.	Skeletal system Skull, spine, hands, arms, legs, ankle, feet.	AIMS: Jaw Breakers & Heart Thumpers “Song” “Are You An Average Joe?” “How Do You Measure Up?” “Compression Session” Houghton/Mifflin: Human Body, Our Bodies Book
Investigate how a variety of organisms can survive only in environments in which their needs can be met.	Food, water, and habitat. Design a brochure to explain fully the procedures for taking care of two different organisms (caterpillar and earthworms).