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3rd grade · Science · Unit 4 of 8

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).

Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 3.L1U1.5 · structures that help plants and animals survive, grow and reproduce

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. An adaptation helps a living thing survive. It can be a body part, like long ears, or a behavior, like hibernation.
  2. Hibernation is a deep winter sleep. Migration is traveling to another place.
  3. Plants and animals help each other: pollination, spreading seeds.

Example: What is pollination? Bees carry pollen from flower to flower. That lets the plant make seeds. Answer: moving pollen so a plant can make seeds

Adaptations & Habitats in Arizona

In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 4 of 8 in 3rd grade Science, after Sense & Respond and before Energy on the Move.

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: Arizona Department of Education

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

    Which animal's coloring helps it hide on a tree trunk?

    • a bright red cardinal
    • a pink flamingo
    • a brown moth

  2. Question 2

    Humans rely on plants for…

    • only noise
    • only metal
    • food and oxygen

  3. Question 3

    A fawn has white spots on a brown coat. How do they help?

    • They help it swim
    • They blend in with sunlight and shadows on the forest floor
    • They make the fawn glow

  4. Question 4

    Why do polar bears have a thick layer of fat?

    • It helps them climb trees
    • It keeps them warm in cold water and air
    • It helps them fly

  5. Question 5

    How does a burr help a plant spread its seeds?

    • It floats on air
    • It digs underground
    • It sticks to animal fur and travels

  6. Question 6

    Why is a fish's streamlined body useful?

    • It stays dry
    • It moves easily through water
    • It helps it climb

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