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1st grade · Science · Unit 4 of 11

Ideas from Nature

Plant and animal parts give us ideas.

What your child practices

Practices how plants and animals use their outside parts to survive, and how people copy those parts to design solutions, like burrs and hook-and-loop straps.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 1.13(A) · how animals' and plants' external structures help them live, move and meet their needs

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Plants and animals have parts that help them live.
  2. Owls have big eyes to see at night. Quills protect a porcupine.
  3. People copy these parts to make new things.

Example: What do a plant's roots do? Roots grow down into the soil. They take in water. Answer: take in water

Ideas from Nature in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 4 of 11 in 1st grade Science, after Living Things and before Sky & Seasons.

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: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

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

    Burrs stick to fur. People copied them to make…

    • glue
    • buttons
    • hook-and-loop straps
    • zippers of metal

  2. Question 2

    Why do owls have big eyes?

    • To smell
    • To see at night
    • To dig
    • To swim

  3. Question 3

    A cactus has spikes. What do they do?

    • Make it smell nice
    • Keep animals away
    • Help it swim
    • Make it fly

  4. Question 4

    A rose has thorns. What do they do?

    • Hold water
    • Keep animals from eating it
    • Make seeds
    • Make it smell

  5. Question 5

    What do a bird's wings help it do?

    • Swim deep
    • Dig
    • Climb rocks
    • Fly

  6. Question 6

    People made swim fins and flippers. Which animal part did they copy?

    • Whiskers
    • Webbed feet
    • Antlers
    • Wings

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