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Kindergarten

Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems: Animals, Plants, and Their Environment

 

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

Performance Expectations
 

 

Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs. K-ESS2-2

Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

Clarification Statement: Examples of plants and animals changing their environment could include a squirrel digs in the ground to hide its food and tree roots can break concrete.

Assessment Boundary: none

 

Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals (including humans) and the places they live. K-ESS3-1

Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

Clarification Statement: Examples of relationships could include that deer eat buds and leaves, therefore, they usually live in forested areas; and, grasses need sunlight so they often grow in meadows. Plants, animals, and their surroundings make up a system.

Assessment Boundary: none

 

Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment. K-ESS3-3

Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

Clarification Statement: Examples of human impact on the land could include cutting trees to produce paper and using resources to produce bottles. Examples of solutions could include reusing paper and recycling cans and bottles.

Assessment Boundary: none

 

Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive. K-LS1-1

Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

Clarification Statement: Examples of patterns could include that animals need to take in food but plants do not; the different kinds of food needed by different types of animals; the requirement of plants to have light; and, that all living things need water.

Assessment Boundary: none

Science and Engineering Practices

Developing and Using Models

Modeling in K–2 builds on prior experiences and progresses to include using and developing models (i.e., diagram, drawing, physical replica, diorama, dramatization, or storyboard) that represent concrete events or design solutions.

Use a model to represent relationships in the natural world. (K-ESS3-1)

Analyzing and Interpreting Data

Analyzing data in K–2 builds on prior experiences and progresses to collecting, recording, and sharing observations.

Use observations (firsthand or from media) to describe patterns in the natural world in order to answer scientific questions. (K-LS1-1)

Engaging in Argument from Evidence

Engaging in argument from evidence in K–2 builds on prior experiences and progresses to comparing ideas and representations about the natural and designed world(s).

Construct an argument with evidence to support a claim. (K-ESS2-2)

Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information in K–2 builds on prior experiences and uses observations and texts to communicate new information.

Communicate solutions with others in oral and/or written forms using models and/or drawings that provide detail about scientific ideas. (K-ESS3-3)

Connections to Nature of Science

Science Knowledge Is Based on Empirical Evidence

Scientists look for patterns and order when making observations about the world. (K-LS1-1)

Disciplinary Core Ideas

LS1.C:  Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms

All animals need food in order to live and grow. They obtain their food from plants or from other animals. Plants need water and light to live and grow. (K-LS1-1)

ESS2.E:  Biogeology

Plants and animals can change their environment. (K-ESS2-2)

ESS3.A:  Natural Resources

Living things need water, air, and resources from the land, and they live in places that have the things they need. Humans use natural resources for everything they do. (K-ESS3-1)

ESS3.C:  Human Impacts on Earth Systems

Things that people do to live comfortably can affect the world around them. But they can make choices that reduce their impacts on the land, water, air, and other living things. (K-ESS3-3)

ETS1.B:  Developing Possible Solutions

Designs can be conveyed through sketches, drawings, or physical models. These representations are useful in communicating ideas for a problem’s solutions to other people. (secondary to K-ESS3-3)

Crosscutting Concepts

Patterns

Patterns in the natural and human designed world can be observed and used as evidence. (K-LS1-1)

Cause and Effect

Events have causes that generate observable patterns. (K-ESS3-3)

Systems and System Models

Systems in the natural and designed world have parts that work together. (K-ESS2-2), (K-ESS3-1)

Common Core State Standards Connections

ELA/Literacy
  • RI.K.1 - With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text. (K-ESS2-2)
  • SL.K.5 - Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail. (K-ESS3-1)
  • W.K.1 - Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book. (K-ESS2-2)
  • W.K.2 - Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic. (K-ESS2-2), (K-ESS3-3)
  • W.K.7 - Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of books by a favorite author and express opinions about them). (K-LS1-1)
Mathematics
  • K.CC - Counting and Cardinality (K-ESS3-1)
  • K.MD.A.2 - Directly compare two objects with a measurable attribute in common, to see which object has "more of"/"less of" the attribute, and describe the difference. (K-LS1-1)
  • MP.2 - Reason abstractly and quantitatively. (K-ESS3-1)
  • MP.4 - Model with mathematics. (K-ESS3-1)