Virginia SOL K.7

ScienceKindergartenLiving Systems and Processes

SOL Standard (Key Ideas Cluster)

The student will investigate and understand that plants and animals have basic needs and life processes. Key ideas include

Virginia Standards of Learning for Science

Cluster contents

K.7 is a Standards of Learning science standard. These are the key ideas and practices under it.

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students identify the resources that help a plant or animal stay alive. They arrange pictures to show stages of a life cycle. They compare young plants and animals with their parents and siblings.
What Mastery Looks Like: Given a familiar organism, a student names its needs and explains where those needs are met. The student sequences its life stages correctly. The student describes at least one shared trait and one difference among parents and offspring.
Common Misconceptions: Students may think plants get their food directly from soil. They may believe a life cycle stops when an organism becomes an adult. They may expect offspring and siblings to look exactly alike.
How to Assess It: Give students shuffled life cycle cards and resource picture cards for one organism. Ask them to order the stages, choose its needs, and name one parent-offspring similarity and difference.

Lesson moves

Build a shoebox habitat for a chosen animal, adding picture cards for food, water, shelter, air, and space.
Show photos of a parent dog and several puppies; ask, "How are the puppies alike, and how is each one different?"
Teams race to place bean, sprout, seedling, flowering plant, and new seed cards in order, then explain the repeating cycle.
Walk around the schoolyard and map where a bird could find food, water, shelter, and space, then discuss how it gets air.

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