After researching the needs of different animals, students will choose an animal that interests them. Students will then design and create a habitat for their animal. They will need to think about the different needs for those animals and think about what their habitat would need to help meet those needs.

This parent guide supports parents in helping their child at home with the 1st Grade Science content.

This resource accompanies our Rethink 1st Grade Science Ecosystems unit. It includes ideas for use, ways to support exceptional children, ways to extend learning, digital resources and tools, tips for supporting English Language Learners and students with visual and hearing impairments. There are also ideas for offline learning.

This unit was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 1st Grade Science in Ecosystems.

In this lesson, students record their observations and draw an adopted tree. Students will review what a tree needs to survive and then consider how their adopted tree's needs are met by the surrounding environment. Students then share information about their trees and create a class scrapbook.

Students will learn about different adaptations of body structures and how the type of environment that an animal lives in and how they survive in that environment is often related to body structure.

This Animal Needs research project helps early elementary students explore animal needs around a specific animal. The project provides students with an opportunity to demonstrate speaking/listening skills, organize and present information, and write informative texts at a developmentally appropriate level. It can be completed in a variety of ways with multiple final products: posters, sculptures (playdoh/air-dry clay), oral presentations (in class or on video), and/or research papers. Students can ask and answer questions following presentations. Students may work independently or in pairs/small groups at school or complete the project at home using books, magazines, and internet resources. Focus on local animals, native species, invasive species, or leave the choice completely open to students' interests. 

In this lesson, students explore what the forest provides for its animal residents. Cooperatively, students create a forest ecosystem with their classmates. Then, they enter the forest as animals in search of food, water, shelter, and space.

In this lesson, student teams will compare a live worm and a model worm, create worm terrariums, and make observations about worms over time.

In this short video, join Emily and Emma from the Prairie Ridge Ecostation in Raleigh to take a look at some birds and learn about how we can observe all kinds of wildlife in our everyday lives.

In this lesson students will select a series of biomes, animals, vegetations, and precipitation to see how compatible they are.

In this lesson, students will identify local birds and their habitats by making a diorama and writing a three-to-four sentence description.

Complete the “Butterfly Experience” together to observe the life cycle of a butterflyEngage students by completing theButterfly Choice Board

Students will make a window box or container garden to attract wildlife such as butterflies. Students draw, photograph and record butterfly visitors to their garden.

In first grade students begin learning about basic nutrition and how to grow plants in a cup or small planter. In this lesson, the students will take it a step further and students will learn how to create a community garden and share the food. The students will use brainstorming apps to plan the garden and create a poster to advertise the garden.

In this lesson, students understand how different organisms living in the same area depend on one another for their source of energy. After this lesson the students should have a better understanding of the concept of a food chain.

In this activity, students learn how to grow plants and about the kinds of things that promote growth (warmth, sunlight, water, soil). Their activities involve learning about how seeds and plants grow and participating in a simple, in-class gardening project. This is the second lesson of a two-part series on where food comes from. These lessons are intended to help students understand that most of the food they eat comes from farms.

In this lesson, students will review living thing needs and places where they can meet their needs. They will create a maze and learn to program the sequence of steps to have a Bee-Bot navigate through it.