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3rd grade · Science · Unit 3 of 10

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.

New York State Learning 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 New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 3 of 10 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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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

    An organism that stops getting food will eventually…

    • grow faster
    • become weak or die
    • get younger

  2. Question 2

    Which is NOT a basic need of a pet fish?

    • Clean water
    • Food
    • A video game

  3. Question 3

    Which pair grows up looking like smaller adults?

    • puppy and dog
    • tadpole and frog
    • caterpillar and butterfly

  4. Question 4

    A chick hatches from an…

    • seed
    • egg
    • pupa

  5. Question 5

    What stage comes after the caterpillar?

    • pupa (chrysalis)
    • adult hatching
    • egg

  6. Question 6

    A drought (no rain) is hard for plants because they lack…

    • sunlight
    • water
    • air

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