Indiana Science K-ESS3-1

ScienceKindergartenEarth and Space Science

The Standard

Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals (including humans) and the places they live. [Clarification Statement: Examples of relationships could include that deer eat buds and leaves; therefore, they usually live in forested areas; and grasses need sunlight so they often grow in meadows. Plants, animals, and their surroundings make up a system.]

Indiana Academic Standards for Science (2023) · Earth and Human Activity

Teacher's field guide

What This Standard Means

What Students Need to Do: Students use drawings or picture cutouts to show where plants and animals live. They show how each place provides something needed, such as sunlight for grass, leaves for deer, or shelter for people.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student draws grass in sunlight and a deer by leafy trees, with lines showing what each needs. They can place a person by a home and explain how it provides shelter.
Common Misconceptions: Some children say plants eat soil instead of needing sunlight and water. Others put deer in forests because they like trees, without noticing the leaves deer eat.
How to Assess It: Give each child a page with a sunny meadow and a forest with leafy trees. Ask them to draw grass and a deer where each belongs, then draw a line to something each needs.

Lesson moves

Ways to Teach It

Give pairs cutouts of grass, sun, deer, leaves, meadow, and forest; ask them to place each where its needs are met.
Show pictures of a forest and an empty parking lot; ask, “Where could a deer find food?”
Play a matching game with cards showing grass, deer, and a child, plus a sunny field, forest, and home; explain each match.
Walk the schoolyard; sketch a plant in sunlight or an animal near food, then explain how that spot meets its need.

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