+
Unit Plan
1
1
Core Knowledge Foundation

Plants Tell It Again!™ Read-Aloud Anthology

For Teachers K Standards
A 190-page anthology explores the life and parts of plants, flowers, and trees while boosting reading comprehension skills. Literature and informational texts showcase Johnny Appleseed and George Washington Carver. Lessons follow the...
+
Lesson Plan
Pace University

Grade 6-8 Living Things

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
What characterizes a living thing? Scholars explore the concept during a differentiated instruction unit on living things. They perform lab experiments to determine how animals adapt to stimuli, watch videos and learn about...
+
Lesson Plan
NASA

Consumers Get Energy From Other Living Things

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
How do plants and animals get their food? Learn about where energy comes from, how animals store energy, and aerobic respiration, in a lesson that allows scholars to diagram energy flows. 
+
Lesson Plan
Journey Through the Universe

Is There Anyone Out There?

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
What is an alien's favorite game? All-star baseball! Scholars start defining living and non-living. Then, they conduct experiments to research if life exists, keeping in mind that life could be in many forms, not just human. 
+
Lesson Plan
1
1
Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction

Discovering Plants and Animals

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st Standards
Exploring the backyard, the school yard, the gardens, and the Internet, small children discover the world around them. The bugs, animals, and plants are alive, but is the lawn mower? An engaging activity that will help them understand...
+
Organizer
North Clackamas Schools

Sorting Living and Nonliving Objects

For Students 2nd - 6th
Is a rock living? How about lima beans? You'll find everything you need for an interactive sorting activity exploring living and non-living things. 
+
Lesson Plan
Captain Planet Foundation

Rotting Away

For Teachers 2nd Standards
What happens at the end of a plant's life cycle? Show kids the natural way that plants show that they're decomposing, as well as the importance of compost, with a instructional activity about living organisms. After reading Log Cabin by...
+
Lesson Plan
Captain Planet Foundation

Sense of Place

For Teachers K
Explore the five senses with a kindergarten lesson on gardening. After taking a walk through the class garden, kids note what they see, hear, feel, taste, and smell, and then decide what is living in the garden versus what is not living....
+
Worksheet
Curated OER

Plants and Animals: Alike and Not Alike

For Students 5th
After reading an informative paragraph that outlines some of the differences between plants and animals, fifth graders attempt to correctly categorize 12 words in a word bank. They must put them in the plant, or animal category. This...
+
Lesson Plan
Serendip

Is Yeast Alive?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Through two investigations, life science learners determine whether or not yeast is alive. They perform tests for metabolism by providing sugar and observing if gas is produced as a byproduct. They incubate some of the sample for at...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plants and Ecosystems

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
The relationships within and between ecosystems can be explored. after examining an area for living and non-living things students complete the same examination in the forest ecosystem. Students identify abiotic and biotic elements in an...
+
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

It's Alive! Or, Is It?

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Seems like a fairly simple question—until you begin asking your class! Get pupils acquainted with the characteristics of life through pairs classification, discussion, and scientific reading. The lesson plan, part of the K20 series, also...
+
Activity
American Museum of Natural History

Make Your Own Creatures of Light

For Students 6th - 12th
Bioluminescent animals are the focus of a hands-on craft in which scholars create a scene of either a land or sea bioluminescent creature.
+
Lesson Plan
National Wildlife Federation

Habitat Web

For Teachers K - 6th Standards
It's all connected. Classes create a web to connect living things in a local ecosystem. They create cards with both living and nonliving things found in their areas while considering the characteristics of each. After they have a good...
+
eBook
Utah Education Network (UEN)

Utah Open Textbook: 3rd Grade Science

For Students 3rd Standards
How do we interact with Earth? Scholars learn about the sun, Earth, moon, forces, gravity, and heat sources by reading a text and performing hands-on demonstrations. They also differentiate between living and non-living things using...
+
Lesson Plan
Pace University

Pollution

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Over the course of 10 days, scholars take a pre-assessment to place them in one of three leveled groups. Whole-class and in small groups, pupils take part in read-alouds, field trips, hands-on activities, and complete learning contracts...
+
Worksheet
PBS

The Lorax

For Students K - 6th Standards
Accompany a reading of Dr. Seuss' tale, The Lorax, with a five-item worksheet. Questions challenge scholars to list characters' names, use text details to answer inquiries, and describe the moral of the story. 
+
Lesson Plan
1
1
Teach Engineering

Clean it Up!

For Teachers 5th - 7th Standards
Harness the power of bacteria. Scholars see how using organisms that exist in nature can help solve human problems in the process known as bioremediation. They research and discuss several successful examples, such as using oil-eating...
+
Assessment
Science Matters

Post-Assessment

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Twenty questions make up an assessment designed to test super scientists' knowledge of ecosystems. Scholars answer multiple-choice and short-answer questions about organisms, food chains, energy flow, and more.
+
Lesson Plan
Science Matters

Crawly Composters

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Get your hands dirty with an interactive lesson that showcases the process of decomposing and returning nutrients back into the soil. After building a compost pile, pupils regularly observe the ways worms help with changes to the soil...
+
Lesson Plan
Science Matters

Mighty Microorganisms

For Students 3rd - 5th Standards
How can you tell if a microorganism is helpful or detrimental to an ecosystem? Learners inspect slides or pictures of microorganisms and record their observations to identify those that are beneficial or harmful. They then pretend to...
+
Lesson Plan
Science Matters

Blubber Gloves: It’s All About Insulation

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Instill the concept of adaptation with the help of Blubber Gloves—ziplock bags, shortening, and duct tape. Scholars discuss how animals and plants keep warm in polar regions, record their predictions, and try on their Blubber Gloves to...
+
Lesson Plan
Science Matters

Oh Heron

For Teachers 4th Standards
Two teams—the environmentalists and herons—play four rounds of the game, Oh Heron. Using hand symbols to represent food, shelter, and water, players locate their match to produce more herons while those unmatched decompose. 
+
Lesson Plan
Science Matters

Basic Needs

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Scholars take part in a grand conversation about the basic needs of living things. Working collaboratively, pupils brainstorm and identify similarities to come to the conclusion that the environment meets the needs of all living things.