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5th grade · Science · Unit 10 of 15

Adaptations & Habitats

How plants and animals survive where they live

What your child practices

Practices habitats, body and behavior adaptations, camouflage, migration and hibernation, and how plants and animals rely on each other (pollination, seed dispersal, soil nutrients).

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 5.13(A) · structures and functions that help different species survive in one environment

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. An adaptation is a feature or behavior that helps a living thing survive.
  2. Body features help, like a cactus storing water or a moth's coloring hiding it.
  3. Behaviors help too, like hibernating through winter.
  4. Plants take water and nutrients from the soil and need sunlight.

Example: A bear sleeps deeply all winter. What is this behavior called? It helps the bear live through winter when food is scarce. A deep winter sleep is hibernation. Answer: hibernation

Adaptations & Habitats in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 10 of 15 in 5th grade Science, after Habitats & Communities and before Circuits at Work.

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

    Humans rely on plants for…

    • only metal
    • food and oxygen
    • only noise

  2. Question 2

    Which adaptation helps a cactus survive in the desert?

    • It has big thin leaves
    • It stores water in its thick stem
    • It grows in water

  3. Question 3

    What is hibernation?

    • a kind of migration
    • a deep sleep that helps an animal survive winter
    • a way of swimming

  4. Question 4

    What is an adaptation?

    • a kind of habitat
    • a type of rock
    • a feature or behavior that helps a living thing survive

  5. Question 5

    A fawn has white spots on a brown coat. How do they help?

    • They blend in with sunlight and shadows on the forest floor
    • They make the fawn glow
    • They help it swim

  6. Question 6

    Why is a fish's streamlined body useful?

    • It moves easily through water
    • It stays dry
    • It helps it climb

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