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.
As part of the upgrade to Fishtank Plus, this unit was revised in April 2021. See which texts and materials have changed as part of the revision in this guide to our Kindergarten text adjustments. If you are looking for the previous version of this unit, you can find it in our archives here.
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. In the first bend of the unit, students continue their exploration of seasons by exploring what makes spring the season of growth and the different characteristics of living, nonliving, and dead things. In the second part of the unit, students observe and learn about plants and what seeds need in order to grow into a plant. In the third part of the unit, students observe and learn about frogs and butterflies and the process in which tadpoles turn into frogs and caterpillars transform into butterflies. In the fourth part of the unit, students learn about birds and how birds grow and change inside of an egg. For each bend of the unit, it is incredibly important that students are able to participate in hands-on labs and activities that help them see and observe the life cycles in action; therefore, there are multiple project days within the unit. After the projects and labs have been set up, students should be pushed to predict, observe, record, and explain the changes that they notice. 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.
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Book: It’s Spring! by Linda Glaser (National Geographic School Pub; 1 edition, 2010) — AD590L
Book: What’s Alive? by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld (HarperCollins; 1 edition, 1995) — 430L
Book: How a Seed Grows by Helene J. Jordan (HarperCollins; Revised edition, 2015) — AD470L
Book: From Seed to Sunflower by Gerald Legg (Children's Press(CT); American ed. Edition, 1998) — 540L
Book: The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle (Little Simon; Reprint edition, 2009) — 500L
Book: Who Will Plant a Tree? by Jerry Pallotta (Sleeping Bear Press, 2010)
Book: Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert (HMH Books for Young Readers; 1 edition, 2001) — AD459L
Book: From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Gerald Legg (Franklin Watts; American ed. Edition, 1998) — 520L
Book: From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman (HarperCollins; Revised edition, 2015) — AD520L
Book: Have you Heard the Nesting Bird? by Rita Gray (HMH Books for Young Readers; Reprint edition, 2017) — AD430L
Book: A Nest Full of Eggs by Priscilla Belz (Jenkins, HarperCollins; Revised edition, 2015) — AD630L
Book: From Egg to Chicken by Gerald Legg (Children's Press(CT), 1998) — 560L
Book: The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen and Jerry Pinkney (Morrow Junior Books; 1st edition, 1999) — AD820L
Book: Frogs by Gail Gibbons (Holiday House; Reprint edition, 1993) — AD600L
Book: From Tadpole to Frog by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld (Scholastic Paperbacks, 2011) — 520L
Book: Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian by Margarita Engle (Henry Holt and Co)
See Text Selection Rationale
This assessment accompanies this unit and should be given on the suggested assessment day or after completing the unit.
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In this unit, students continue to work on crafting sentences orally and in writing. Students explore using different sentence types and conjunctions to convey specific ideas and emotion.
In this unit, students use a combination of drawing and writing to write stories about the life cycle of a plant and a bird.
In this unit, students focus on using drawing, dictating, and writing to teach a reader about the stages in a frog and butterfly life cycle.
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It’s Spring!
RI.K.2
Explain how the little boy knows it’s spring.
What’s Alive?
RI.K.2
RI.K.3
Explain how you can tell if something is alive and what all living things need to survive.
How a Seed Grows
RI.K.2
RI.K.3
Explain how seeds change as they grow and what they need in order to change and grow.
From Seed to Sunflower
RI.K.3
RI.K.4
RI.K.7
Explain how seeds change into sunflowers and what happens at each stage.
The Tiny Seed
RL.K.3
Explain how the tiny seed survives.
Who Will Plant a Tree?
RI.K.3
Explain how animals are an important part of a plant's life cycle.
2 days
Writing
W.K.3
W.K.5
L.K.1
L.K.2
Write a story about a seed that travels from one place to another.
Frogs pp. 1 – 21
RI.K.2
RI.K.3
Retell key details about the stages in a frog’s life cycle.
From Tadpole to Frog
RI.K.3
RI.K.9
Identify additional details about each stage of a frog’s life cycle.
Writing
W.K.2
W.K.7
W.K.8
L.K.1
L.K.2
Write an informational text to teach about a frog’s life cycle.
Waiting for Wings
RI.K.3
RI.K.7
Predict the stages in a butterfly’s life cycle and what happens at each stage.
Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian
RI.K.3
RI.K.7
Explain what Merian learned about butterflies and why this was important.
From Caterpillar to Butterfly
RI.K.3
RI.K.9
Describe the stages in a butterfly’s life cycle and what happens at each stage.
Writing
W.K.2
W.K.7
W.K.8
L.K.1
L.K.2
Write a book that teaches about each stage in a butterfly’s life cycle.
Have you Heard the Nesting Bird?
RI.K.2
RI.K.3
Explain why the nesting bird was not making any noise.
A Nest Full of Eggs pp. 1 – 23
RI.K.2
RI.K.3
Explain what happens at each stage of a bird’s life cycle.
From Egg to Chicken
RI.K.3
RI.K.9
Describe the life cycle of a chicken.
2 days
Writing
W.K.2
W.K.3
W.K.5
L.K.1
Write a story about a baby bird hatching from an egg.
The Ugly Duckling pp. 1 – 12
RL.K.2
RL.K.3
Explain how the other animals treated the little duckling and how it made him feel.
The Ugly Duckling
RL.K.2
RL.K.3
Explain what the duckling learns about himself and what lessons we can learn from him.
Discussion
SL.K.1
SL.K.2
Discuss unit essential questions.
Assessment
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