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3rd grade · Science · Unit 3 of 8

Basic Needs & Life Cycles

What living things need, and the stages of their lives.

What your child practices

Practices the basic needs of organisms (food, water, air, shelter) and the life cycles of plants and animals, including metamorphosis in butterflies and frogs.

Alaska content standards learning standard: 3-LS1-1 · life cycles of birth, growth, reproduction and death

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Living things need food, water, air and shelter.
  2. Plants make food from sunlight, air and water. Animals eat plants or other animals.
  3. Butterfly: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), adult.

Example: A caterpillar is which stage of a butterfly? Egg comes first, then the young form that eats leaves. Answer: larva

Basic Needs & Life Cycles in Alaska

In the Alaska content standards, this is unit 3 of 8 in 3rd grade Science, after Pushes, Pulls & Forces and before Speed & Motion.

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: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

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

    Why do plants need roots?

    • To fly
    • To take in water and hold the plant
    • To play

  2. Question 2

    Most living things need air because…

    • they need gas to live
    • it makes them tall
    • they like wind

  3. Question 3

    A polar bear's thick fur helps it meet the need for…

    • warmth
    • water in a stream
    • food from the Sun

  4. Question 4

    A chick hatches from an…

    • pupa
    • seed
    • egg

  5. Question 5

    Which has a life cycle that starts as a seed?

    • A butterfly
    • A frog
    • A bean plant

  6. Question 6

    A puppy and a butterfly are different because the butterfly…

    • has no life cycle
    • changes form in its life cycle
    • never eats

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