4th grade · Science · Unit 1 of 11
Sense & Respond
How living things react
What your child practices
How people, animals and plants sense and respond to their environment: the nervous system, reflexes, special animal senses and plant responses to light, gravity and touch.
New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 4-LS1-1; 4-LS1-2 · how living things sense their surroundings and respond
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
- Your senses notice things: eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin.
- Nerves carry a message to your brain. Your brain decides, then your muscles move.
- A reflex is extra fast: the message goes to your spinal cord and straight back.
- Some animals have special senses, like bats hearing echoes or sharks sensing electric signals.
Example: You smell smoke. What happens first? Something must notice the smoke before your brain can act. Your nose senses the smell, then nerves carry the message to your brain. Answer: your nose senses the smoke
Sense & Respond in New York
In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 1 of 11 in 4th grade Science, before Light.
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.
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
The school bell rings. Put the steps of your response in order.
- 👂Your ears sense the sound
- ⚡Nerves carry a message to your brain
- 🧠Your brain decides what to do
- 🏃Your muscles move you to line up
Your ears sense the sound → Nerves carry a message to your brain → Your brain decides what to do → Your muscles move you to line up
Hint: Your senses notice first. Nerves carry the message to your brain, your brain decides, then your muscles move.
Question 2
A plant on a windowsill slowly bends toward the window. What is it responding to?
🪴- 🔊sound
- 🎨the color of its pot
- ☀️light
- 🍳the smell of the kitchen
☀️ light
Hint: Plants need light to make food, so their stems grow toward the light.
Question 3
A Venus flytrap snaps shut when an insect touches tiny hairs inside it. What is the stimulus?
🪰- The green color of the leaf
- The insect touching the hairs
- The soil around the roots
- The trap snapping shut
The insect touching the hairs
Hint: The stimulus is what the plant senses. The response is what the plant does.
Question 4
Many trees drop their leaves in autumn. What are they responding to?
🍂- Longer, warmer days
- Shorter days and colder weather
- People raking the yard
- Birds singing in the branches
Shorter days and colder weather
Hint: When days get shorter and colder, many trees drop their leaves to save water and energy for winter.
Question 5
You walk out of a dark room into bright sunshine. What do your pupils do?
👀- They get bigger
- They change color
- They get smaller
- They stay exactly the same
They get smaller
Hint: Pupils shrink in bright light to let in less light and protect your eyes.
Question 6
Who is responding: a plant or an animal? Tap an item, then tap its basket.
Sort into: 🪴 plant · 🐾 animal
- 🐈cat's pupils shrink in bright light
- ❄️snowshoe hare's fur turns white
- 🍂tree drops its leaves in autumn
- 🌿tendril curls around a stick
- 🪰flytrap snaps shut when touched
- 🦇bat hibernates in a cave
🪴 plant: tree drops its leaves in autumn, tendril curls around a stick, flytrap snaps shut when touched · 🐾 animal: cat's pupils shrink in bright light, snowshoe hare's fur turns white, bat hibernates in a cave
Hint: Plants respond slowly, by growing, bending or dropping leaves. Animals can move their whole bodies, change their fur, or sleep through winter.