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Exploring Life Cycles
Students study the life cycles of different plants and animals and the characteristics of living, nonliving, and dead things, through multiple engaging informational texts and hands-on activities.
ELA
Unit 7
Kindergarten
Unit Summary
In this science-based unit, students begin to build respect for and understanding of living things by studying the life cycles of different plants and animals. Students continue their exploration of seasons by learning what makes spring the season of growth and the different characteristics of living, nonliving, and dead things. Students observe and learn about plants and what seeds need in order to grow into a plant,the process in which tadpoles turn into frogs and caterpillars transform into butterflies, and how birds grow and change inside of an egg. Throughout the unit, students should be challenged to think critically about how the life cycles of plants and animals are similar and different, and what all living things need in order to thrive and survive.
Students continue to use all of the strategies learned in previous units to understand an informational or literary text. Students build on those understandings by noticing the sequence of events, particularly in informational texts. Because students read a variety of texts on the same topic, students also begin to think about the ways in which texts on the same topic can be similar and different.
Students continue to build writing fluency by writing daily in response to the Target Task. Additionally, throughout the unit students engage in both narrative and informational writing, By this point in the year, students should be using a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing, with more of an emphasis on drawing and writing.
The text for Lesson 12: Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian by Margarita Engle is out of print. If you can't access this text, this lesson can be skipped.
Please Note: In early 2026, this unit and its lesson plans will be updated to reflect a round of enhancements that improve writing, language, and reading instruction.
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Texts and Materials
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Core Materials
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Book: It’s Spring! by Linda Glaser (National Geographic School Pub; 1 edition, 2010) — AD590L
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Book: What’s Alive? by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld (HarperCollins; 1 edition, 1995) — 430L
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Book: How a Seed Grows by Helene J. Jordan (HarperCollins; Revised edition, 2015) — AD470L
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Book: From Seed to Sunflower by Mari Schuh — 510L
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Book: The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle (Little Simon; Reprint edition, 2009) — 500L
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Book: Who Will Plant a Tree? by Jerry Pallotta (Sleeping Bear Press, 2010)
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Book: Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert (HMH Books for Young Readers; 1 edition, 2001) — AD459L
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Book: From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman (HarperCollins; Revised edition, 2015) — 490L
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Book: Have you Heard the Nesting Bird? by Rita Gray (HMH Books for Young Readers; Reprint edition, 2017) — AD430L
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Book: A Nest Full of Eggs by Priscilla Belz (Jenkins, HarperCollins; Revised edition, 2015) — AD630L
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Book: The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen and Jerry Pinkney (Morrow Junior Books; 1st edition, 1999) — AD820L
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Book: Frogs by Gail Gibbons (Holiday House; Reprint edition, 1993) — AD600L
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Book: From Tadpole to Frog by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld (Scholastic Paperbacks, 2011) — 520L
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Book: Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian by Margarita Engle (Henry Holt and Co)
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Book: Egg to Chicken (Follow the Life Cycle) by Rachel Tonkin (Crabtree Classics) — 510L
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Assessment Text: “And the Bullfrogs Sing: A Life Cycle Begins” by David Harrison and illustrated by Kate Cosgrove (Holiday House)
Supporting Materials
- Resource: Book List for Further Reading
Assessment
The following assessments accompany Unit 7.
Content Assessment
The Content Assessment pushes students to synthesize unit content knowledge or unit essential questions in writing. The Content Assessment should be used as the primary assessment because it shows mastery of unit content knowledge and standards.
Cold Read Assessment
The Cold Read Assessment tests students' ability to comprehend a "cold" or unfamiliar passage and answer standards-based questions. The Cold Read Assessment can be given in addition to the Content Assessment as a pulse point for what students can read and analyze independently, a skill often required for standardized testing.
Unit Prep
Intellectual Prep
Essential Questions
- What do all living things need to survive?
- How are life cycles of various organisms similar and different?
Reading Focus Areas
- To understand information in a text, readers think about the sequence of events.
- Texts on the same topic can be similar and different.
Writing Focus Areas
Narrative Writing Focus Areas
- Narrate a single event.
- Tell what happens in the beginning, middle, and end.
Informational Writing Focus Areas
- Name the topic they are writing about.
- Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to include some information about the topic.
Speaking and Listening Focus Areas
- Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.
- Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly.
Vocabulary
Text-based
bloomburstclinghatchlaymoltnutrientnutrientspeckplantpuzzledshedsproutsurroundwiggle
To see all the vocabulary for Unit 7, view our Kindergarten Vocabulary Glossary.
Supporting All Students
In order to ensure that all students are able to access the texts and tasks in this unit, it is incredibly important to intellectually prepare to teach the unit prior to launching the unit. Use the intellectual preparation protocol and the Unit Launch to determine which support students will need. To learn more, visit the Supporting all Students teacher tool.
Content Knowledge and Connections
- All living things need food, water, and air to survive.
- A life cycle is a series of stages that a living thing passes through as it is born, grows, and dies.
- Different organisms have different life cycles. Organisms grow differently.
- Plants start as seeds. The seeds germinate and grow into a young plant. The plant then grows into a mature or adult plant. The adult plant grows seeds. The seeds travel to different places and the life cycle starts again.
- A frog starts as an egg. The eggs turn into tadpoles. The tadpoles have gills that grow underwater. The tadpoles then grow legs and lungs. They become froglets. The froglets lose their tail and turn into an adult. The adult then lays its own eggs and the life cycle starts again.
- A butterfly starts as an egg. A caterpillar grows out of the egg. The caterpillar then goes into a chrysalis. In the chrysalis, it grows a head, wings, and a body. Out of the chrysalis comes a butterfly. The butterfly later lays its own eggs and the life cycle starts again.
- A bird starts as an egg. Inside the egg, it grows into a little bird. The little bird hatches out of the egg. The mother and father take care of the bird as it grows. The little chicks grow into adult birds, who later can have their own chicks.
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Lesson Map
Common Core Standards
Core Standards
Supporting Standards
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