TREES IN WINTER ALIGNMENT WITH
NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS
The activities in this unit help children understand the basic concepts in the Disciplinary Core Ideas listed here. You can use the following list as a guide for lesson planning. These Disciplinary Core Ideas are taken from Grade Band Endpoints in A Framework for K-12 Science Education. Additionally, our activities give children opportunities to engage in many of the Science and Engineering Practices and reflect on the Crosscutting Concepts as identified in the Next Generation Science Standards.
Grades K-2 Disciplinary Core Ideas
LS1A: All organisms have external parts. Plants also have different parts (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits) that help them survive, grow, and produce more plants. p.144
LS1B: Plants and animals have predictable characteristics at different stages of development. Plants and animals grow and change. Adult plants and animals can have young. p.146
LS1C: All animals need food in order to live and grow. They obtain their food from plants or from other animals. Plants need water and light to live and grow. p.147
LS2A: Animals depend on their surroundings to get what they need, including food, water, shelter, and a favorable temperature. Animals depend on plants or other animals for food. Plants depend on air, water, minerals (in the soil), and light to grow. p.151
LS2C: The places where plants and animals live often change, sometimes slowly and sometimes rapidly. When animals and plants get too hot or cold, they may die. If they cannot find enough food, water, or air, they may die. p.155
LS3A: Organisms have characteristics that can be similar or different. Plants also are very much, but not exactly, like their parents and resemble other plants of the same kind. p.158
LS3B: Individuals of the same kind of plant or animal are recognizable as similar but can also vary in many ways. p.160
LS4D: There are many different kinds of living things in any area, and they exist in different places on land and in water. p.166
Grades 3-5 Disciplinary Core Ideas
LS1A: Plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior and reproduction. p.144
LS2A: The food of almost any kind of animal can be traced back to plants. Organisms are related in food webs in which some animals eat plants for food and other animals eat the animals that eat plants. p.151-152
LS4D: Scientists have identified and classified many plants and animals. Populations of organisms live in a variety of habitats, and changes in those habitats affects the organisms living there. p.167
Grades 6-8 Disciplinary Core Ideas
LS1C: Animals obtain food from eating plants or eating other animals. p.148
LS4D: Biodiversity is the wide range of existing life forms that have adapted to the variety of conditions on Earth, from terrestrial to marine ecosystems. p.167
TREES IN WINTER ALIGNMENT WITH
COMMON CORE STANDARDS
In addition to science content, activities in this unit also can help students to practice the following mathematics and language arts concepts. The Common Core Standards listed here are in addition to the ones that our activities typically address, as listed in the Four Winds document, The Nature Program: Alignment with Learning Standards.
Grades K-2 Common Core Standards
Speaking and Listening Standard 4: Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail.
Language Standard 6: Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts, including using adjectives and adverbs to describe.
Mathematics Standard 2.MD: Measure the length of an object by selecting and using appropriate tools such as rulers, yardsticks, meter sticks, and measuring tapes.
Grades 3-5 Common Core Standards
Reading for Informational Text Standard 7: Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding.
Language Standard 5: Interpret figurative language, including similes and metaphors, in context.
Nearby Nature 