Download Life Science, Grades 3 – 6

Life
Science(Biolo
gy)
Skills and Concepts
Skills and Concepts
Grade 3
Grade 4
Skills and Concepts
Grade 5/6
Characteristics Students will classify animals
Students will classify plants according
of Plants and according to the physical
to the physical characteristics that they
Animals
characteristics they share.
share.
Students will recognize that
animals go through predictable life
cycles that include birth, growth,
development, reproduction, and
death.
Students will describe major
stages that characterize the life
cycle of frogs as they go through
metamorphosis.
Students will study plant and animal
cells. Students will explore the
classifications of living things. Students
will collect specimens in the field, make
sketches, and make observations with
the naked eye, magnifying glasses, and
microscopes.
Structures
and Functions
Students will study the parts of the cell,
and the characteristic differences
between plant cell and animal cell.
Students will study and copy
photographs and drawings. Students will
observe and identify cell structures
under a microscope. Students will
create cell models.
Students will study the skeletal system.
Systems in
Living Things
Students will identify the structures in
plants that are responsible for food
production, support, water transport,
reproduction, growth, and protection.
Students will recognize that plants and
animals go through predictable life
cycles that include birth, growth,
development, reproduction, and death.
Students will study the water cycle, and
carbon cycle. Students will explore the
balance in an ecosystem and how each
species is uniquely important.
Grade 3
Adaptations of
Living Things
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5/6
Grade 4
Grade 5/6
Students will give examples of how Students will recognize that some
Students will study how living things
inherited characteristics may
animal behaviors are instinctive and
adapt, and how they have evolved over
change over time as adaptations to others are learned.
time. Students will make connections
changes in the environment that Students will recognize plant behaviors, between structure and function of
enable organisms to survive, e.g. such as the way seedlings’ stems grow physical traits in living organisms.
shape of beak, shape of teeth,
toward the light and their roots grow
Students will study and copy
color.
downward.
photographs and drawings. Students will
Students will give examples of how
observe and identify cell structures
changes in the environment have
under a microscope. Students will
caused some animals to die or
create cell models.
move to new locations (migration).
Students will describe how
organisms meet some needs by
using instinctual and learned
behaviors in response to
information from the environment.
Students will recognize that
animals can survive harsh
environments because of seasonal
behaviors, ex. hibernation in
winter.
Students will give examples of how
organisms can cause changes in
their environment to ensure
survival.
Energy and
Living Things
Students will describe how energy
derived from the sun is used by
plants and transferred within a
food chain from producers to
consumers.
Students will describe how energy
Students will study the food web and
derived from the sun is used by plants food chain. Students will identify
to produce sugars (photosynthesis) and producers and consumers. Students will
is transferred within a food chain from understand the carbon footprint.
producers (plants), to consumers, to
decomposers.
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5/6
Changes in
Ecosystem
Over Time
Students will study the impact that the
introduction of invasive species may
have on an ecosystem. Students will
study the balance and density of life and
how fluctuations in populations can have
a ripple effect.
Evolution and
Biodiversity
Students will explore Darwin’s finches,
and other necessary evolutionary
developments. Students will understand
the basic skeletal structure, and study
the correlation between the changes in
skeletal structure in relation to lifestyle
constraints.
Living things
and Their
Environment
Students will study the impact that living
things have on their environment, and
will understand the complex
interconnectedness among living things
on both the large and small scale.
Reproduction
and Heredity
Students will study dominant and
recessive genes. Students will study
selective breeding. Students will study
unique and interesting mating habits.