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4th grade · Science · Unit 8 of 14

Adaptations & Habitats

How plants and animals survive where they live

What your child practices

Practices habitats, body and behavior adaptations, camouflage, migration and hibernation, and how plants and animals rely on each other (pollination, seed dispersal, soil nutrients).

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 4.8 · animal and plant structures that support growth, survival and behavior

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. An adaptation is a feature or behavior that helps a living thing survive.
  2. Body features help, like a cactus storing water or a moth's coloring hiding it.
  3. Behaviors help too, like hibernating through winter.
  4. Plants take water and nutrients from the soil and need sunlight.

Example: A bear sleeps deeply all winter. What is this behavior called? It helps the bear live through winter when food is scarce. A deep winter sleep is hibernation. Answer: hibernation

Adaptations & Habitats in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 8 of 14 in 4th grade Science, after Built to Survive: Plants and before Sense & Respond.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    What is a habitat?

    • a type of weather
    • a kind of food
    • the place where a plant or animal lives and finds what it needs

  2. Question 2

    How do some animals help plants spread seeds?

    • By eating fruit and dropping seeds elsewhere
    • By planting trees on purpose
    • By drinking the soil

  3. Question 3

    How do maple seeds travel?

    • They are carried by ants only
    • They swim
    • They spin like helicopters on the wind

  4. Question 4

    What is camouflage?

    • a loud sound
    • a kind of nest
    • colors or patterns that help an animal blend in

  5. Question 5

    Why do pine trees have needles instead of wide leaves?

    • Needles are softer
    • Needles make fruit
    • Needles lose less water and shed snow

  6. Question 6

    If a pond dries up, what will happen to the animals that live there?

    • They must move or may not survive
    • Nothing
    • They grow wings

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