Life Science
Children's Books
From Seed to Plant By Gail Gibbons. (1993). 32p. Holiday House, (9780823410255). Gr. K&Up.
This book is a simple introduction to how plants reproduce, discussing pollination, seed dispersal, and growth from seed to plant. This book could be related to the processes and structures involved with plant reproduction. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/from-seed-to-plant-gail-gibbons/1100194059?ean=9780823410255&itm=1&usri=9780823410255 |
The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds: A Book About How Living Things Grow By Joanna Cole. Illus. By Bruce Degen, John Speirs. (1995). 32p. Scholastic Paperbacks, (978-0590222969). Gr. PreK-3.
This book explores the process of pollination along with the rest of the components of plant reproduction. Find this book here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-magic-school-bus-plants-seeds-patricia-relf/1110858254?ean=9780590222969 |
Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life By Molly Bang, Penny Chisholm. Illus. By Molly Garrett. (2009). 40p. Blue Sky Press, (978-0545044226). Gr. PreK-3.
This book illustrates and explains the process of photosynthesis. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/living-sunlight-molly-garrett-bang/1110863781?ean=9780545044226&itm=1&usri=9780545044226 |
Technology Resources
Can You Grow a Plant? - This is an interactive game for the student to grow a plant, balancing the amount of water and heat it gets.
Plant Parts and Functions - This is an interactive page identifying parts of a plant and their function, also clearly explains photosynthesis and its purpose.
Zip's Guide to Plants - This is an interactive site with a fun guide on Plants: parts, pollination, growth of a plant, etc.
Instructional Resources
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This is a worksheet labeling the parts of a flower. This could be used for instruction, or assessment.
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Assessment Resources
Children's Books
Hidden in the Grass By Barbara Taylor. (2011). 24p. QEB Publishing, (978-1609920838). Gr. 2&Up.
This book is nonfiction and demonstrates how both predator and prey can benefit from blending into their surroundings, enabling them to excel at hunting or hiding. This relates to animal adaptations, namely camouflage. Find this book here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hidden-in-the-grass-barbara-taylor/1102044670?ean=9781609920838&itm=1&usri=9781609920838 |
Near One Cattail: Turtles, Logs, and Leaping Frogs By Anthony D. Fredericks. Illus. By Jennifer DiRubbio. (2005). 32p. Dawn Publications, (9781584690719). Gr. PreK-4.
This book is about the ecosystem of a wetland. It includes the animals in a wetland that swim, soar, and crawl. This book would be a good way to identify the parts of the ecosystem with the students. Find this book here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/near-one-cattail-anthony-d-fredericks/1112951576?ean=9781584690719&itm=1&usri=9781584690719 |
Pass the Energy, Please! By Barbara Shaw Mckinney, Chad Wallace. Illus. By Chad Wallace. (2000). 32p. Dawn Publications, (978-1584690023). Gr. 2-5.
This book illustrates the food chain in rhyming couplets. It would be a good book to use in the middle of a unit on food chains and food webs. Find this book here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pass-the-energy-please-barbara-shaw-mckinney/1112538627?ean=9781584690023&itm=1&usri=9781584690023 |
Technology Resources
Animal Sort (PBS) - This is an interactive game for kids to sort animals into their habitats based on temperature. Students look at the thermometer by the animal and drag and drop them into the habitat with the same thermometer.
What Goes With What? (PBS) - This is a matching game. Students can choose if they want to match an animal to its tracks, or tracks to an animal; plants to its tree, or trees to their plants; etc. The game allows you to set your own difficulty. Each page provides educational information about the picture it is matching.
Build an Ecosystem (PBS) - This is a very fun and intricate game where students build an ecosystem. They place producers, and consumers in an ecosystem. It is a simulation lasting 12 days (12 turns), giving daily reports of who is healthy in the ecosystem.
The Soup Can - This is a follow-along-reading book with a science word vocabulary quiz at the end. The story is about the impact humans can have on the environment.
Instructional Resources
Animal Dinnertime - This worksheet will ask students to identify herbivores from a list of pictures. This is a good review for fourth graders, providing information to food chains/food webs. This worksheet is accompanied with the answer key.
Animal Homes - This worksheet will ask students to connect various animals to their habitats. This worksheet is accompanied with the answer key.
Be Kind to Mother Nature - This worksheet will have students identify ways humans pollute, affecting the environment. This worksheet is accompanied with the answer key.
Animal Homes - This worksheet will ask students to connect various animals to their habitats. This worksheet is accompanied with the answer key.
Be Kind to Mother Nature - This worksheet will have students identify ways humans pollute, affecting the environment. This worksheet is accompanied with the answer key.
Assessment Resources
Ecosystem Worksheet - This worksheet assesses the student's ability to distinguish between a population and community in an ecosystem.
Life Science SOLs
4.4 The student will investigate and understand basic plant anatomy and life processes.
Key concepts include:
Key concepts include:
- a) the structures of typical plants and the function of each structure;
- b) processes and structures involved with plant reproduction;
- c) photosynthesis; and
- d) adaptations allow plants to satisfy life needs and respond to the environment.
In order to meet this standard, it is expected that students will:
- Analyze a common plant: identify the roots, stems, leaves, and flowers, and explain the function of each.
- Create a model/diagram illustrating the parts of a flower and its reproductive processes. Explain the model/diagram using the following terminology: pollination, stamen, stigma, pistil, sepal, embryo, spore, seed.
- Compare and contrast different ways plants are pollinated.
- Explain that ferns and mosses reproduce with spores rather than seeds.
- Explain the process of photosynthesis, using the following terminology: sunlight, chlorophyll, water, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and sugar.
- Explain the role of adaptations of common plants to include dormancy, response to light, and response to moisture.
In order to meet this standard, it is expected that teachers know:
- For many typical green plants, there are anatomical structures that perform certain basic functions. For example, roots anchor the plants and take water and nutrients from the soil. Plant stems provide support and allow movement of water and nutrients.
- Plants can be divided into two general groups: those that produce seeds and those that produce spores.
- Many seed-producing plants have roots, stems, leaves, and flowers.
- Seeds vary considerably in size. Orchids, for example, produce seeds as small as dust particles. The coconut is one of the largest seeds in the plant kingdom. In many seeds, the protective outer seed coat is resistant to physical damage and may also contain waxes and oils that help prevent water loss.
- The embryo within the seed begins as a single cell, the zygote. The basic organs of the plant body can be found in the embryo. In some seeds the embryonic leaves are quite large, filling most of the volume of the seed. The embryonic leaves are a major source of stored food for the embryo. Beans are an example of plants with large embryonic leaves. In many other plants the embryonic leaves are relatively small, and the embryo is nourished by a tissue called endosperm.
- Pollination is part of the reproductive process of flowering plants. Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred from the stamens to the stigma.
- The stamen and pistil are reproductive parts of the flower. The sepals are the small leaves that form the housing of the developing flower.
- Some plants reproduce with spores. These include ferns and mosses.
- Green plants produce their own food through the process of photosynthesis. Green plants use chlorophyll to produce food (sugar), using carbon dioxide, water, enzymes and other chemicals, and sunlight. Leaves are the primary food-producing part of these plants.
- Oxygen is released during photosynthesis.
- Plants adapt to changes in their environment in order to survive. Dormancy is a plant adaptation. Dormancy is a period of suspended life processes brought on by changes in the environment.
4.5 The student will investigate and understand how plants and animals, including
humans, in an ecosystem interact with one another and with the nonliving
components in the ecosystem.
Key concepts include:
humans, in an ecosystem interact with one another and with the nonliving
components in the ecosystem.
Key concepts include:
- a) plant and animal adaptations;
- b) organization of populations, communities, and ecosystems and how they interrelate;
- c) flow of energy through food webs;
- d) habitats and niches;
- e) changes in an organism’s niche at various stages in its life cycle; and
- f) influences of human activity on ecosystems.
In order to meet this standard, it is expected that students will:
- Distinguish between structural (physical) and behavioral adaptations.
- Investigate and infer the function of basic adaptations.
- Understand that adaptations allow an organism to succeed in a given environment.
- Explain how different organisms use their unique adaptations to meet their needs.
- Describe why certain communities exist in given habitats.
- Illustrate the food webs in a local area.
- Compare and contrast the niches of several different organisms within the community.
- Compare and contrast the differing ways an organism interacts with its surroundings at various stages of its life cycle. Specific examples include a frog and a butterfly.
- Differentiate among positive and negative influences of human activity on ecosystems.
In order to meet this standard, it is expected that teachers will:
- Organisms have structural adaptations or physical attributes that help them meet a life need.
- Organisms also have behavioral adaptations, or certain types of activities they perform, which help them meet a life need.
- All the organisms of the same species that live in the same place at the same time are a population.
- Populations of species that live in the same place at the same time together make up a community.
- The organization of communities is based on the utilization of the energy from the sun within a given ecosystem. The greatest amount of energy in a community is in the producers.
- Within a community, organisms are dependent on the survival of other organisms. Energy is passed from one organism to another.
- All the populations and the nonliving components in an environment that interact with each other form an ecosystem.
- The sun’s energy cycles through ecosystems from producers through consumers and back into the nutrient pool through decomposers.
- A habitat is the place or kind of place in which an animal or plant naturally lives. An organism’s habitat provides food, water, shelter, and space. The size of the habitat depends on the organism’s needs.
- A niche is the function that an organism performs in the food web of that community. A niche also includes everything else the organism does and needs in its environment. No two types of organisms occupy exactly the same niche in a community.
- The organization of a community is defined by the interrelated niches within it.
- During its life cycle, an organism’s role in the community — its niche — may change. For example, what an animal eats, what eats it, and other relationships will change.
- Humans can have a major impact on ecosystems.