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Kindergarten · Science · Unit 1 of 9

What Living Things Need

Food, water, air and sunlight

What your child practices

Telling living from non-living things, and what plants and animals need to live: food, water, air, shelter and sunlight.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 0L.2.1.1.3; 0L.3.1.1.1 · describing what plants and animals, including people, need to survive

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Living things grow and change. Toys and rocks do not.
  2. Plants and animals need water, air and food.
  3. Plants need sunlight too.

Example: Which one is living: a ball or a bird? A bird grows and eats. A ball does not. Answer: a bird

What Living Things Need in Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 1 of 9 in Kindergarten Science, before Materials.

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: Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)

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 do we breathe in to stay alive?

    • 🌬️air
    • 🧃juice
    • 🏖️sand

  2. Question 2

    Living or not living? Tap a picture, then its basket.

    Sort into: 🌱 living · 🪨 not living

    • ⚽ball
    • 👟shoe
    • 🐦bird
    • 🌻sunflower
    • 🪑chair
    • 🐟fish

  3. Question 3

    Where does a fish live?

    🐟
    • 🌊in water
    • 🏜️in the desert
    • 🌳in a tree

  4. Question 4

    What does a plant need to grow?

    🌱
    • 🍬candy
    • 💧water
    • 🧸a toy

  5. Question 5

    A plant is kept in a dark closet. What will happen?

    🪴
    • ⬆️It will grow faster
    • 😐Nothing will change
    • 🥀It won't grow well

  6. Question 6

    What do animals need to live?

    🐇
    • 📺a TV
    • 🧸toys
    • 🍎food and water

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