Subscribe

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.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: K-LS1-1 · patterns in 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 New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 1 of 9 in Kindergarten Science, before Push & Pull.

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

    Where does a fish live?

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

  2. Question 2

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

    Sort into: 🌱 living · 🪨 not living

    • 🚗toy car
    • 🌻sunflower
    • 🧸teddy bear
    • 🐦bird
    • ⚽ball
    • 🐟fish

  3. Question 3

    Which one needs food, water and air?

    • 🐇a rabbit
    • 🪨a rock
    • 🚲a bike

  4. Question 4

    What does a plant need to grow?

    🌱
    • 🍬candy
    • 💧water
    • 🧸a toy

  5. Question 5

    Which one is living?

    • 🧸a teddy bear
    • 🪨a rock
    • 🌳a tree

  6. Question 6

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

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

More Kindergarten