ALEX Classroom Resources

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (3) 6 :

6 ) Create representations to explain the unique and diverse life cycles of organisms other than humans (e.g., flowering plants, frogs, butterflies), including commonalities such as birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

Students learn that living things experience diverse lifecycles. For example, baby birds go through distinct stages as they grow up into adult birds. This lesson uses the eagle to model universal avian life stages: from egg, to chick, to fledgling juvenile, to adult.

Students begin by creating a collage of bird images, discussing the characteristics that all birds share. A well-known story, The Ugly Duckling, is then read to introduce the concept of change over the life span. Students then use segments from the Nature film American Eagle to learn how eagles look and act in different stages of their life cycle. At the conclusion of the lesson, students diagram the eagle life cycle, and may enhance their science learning with vocabulary and math activities.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (3) 6 :

6 ) Create representations to explain the unique and diverse life cycles of organisms other than humans (e.g., flowering plants, frogs, butterflies), including commonalities such as birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

In this lesson, students learn about the life cycle of plants by watching a time-lapse video. This activity provides students with further evidence that all living things grow and change as they progress through their life cycle. Two optional video segments show students how to set up a germination experiment and how to grow seeds they collect on their socks.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (3) 6 :

6 ) Create representations to explain the unique and diverse life cycles of organisms other than humans (e.g., flowering plants, frogs, butterflies), including commonalities such as birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

Students explore similarities and differences in the life cycle of organisms and are introduced to the process of metamorphosis. This lesson deepens students' understanding of the similarities and differences in the life cycles of organisms. The lesson begins with a reading of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Next, students use a video to study the developmental stages of frogs, dragonflies, and butterflies. They compare insect and frog life cycles to each other and to the stages of human development.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (3) 5 :

5 ) Obtain and combine information to describe that organisms are classified as living things, rather than nonliving things, based on their ability to obtain and use resources, grow, reproduce, and maintain stable internal conditions while living in a constantly changing external environment.

[SC2015] (3) 6 :

6 ) Create representations to explain the unique and diverse life cycles of organisms other than humans (e.g., flowering plants, frogs, butterflies), including commonalities such as birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

Players take on the role of bilbies, rabbit-sized Australian marsupials, as they race through the landscape looking for food and avoiding predators—and trying not to run into rocks—in this interactive game from PLUM LANDING™. They also learn about the bilby’s life cycle and the plants and animals that share its ecosystem.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (3) 6 :

6 ) Create representations to explain the unique and diverse life cycles of organisms other than humans (e.g., flowering plants, frogs, butterflies), including commonalities such as birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

Students explore how butterflies change and grow throughout their life cycle in this interactive lesson from NATURE. Through captivating video content and interactive activities, students will discover the amazing transformation process from a tiny caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly.

For more resources from NATURE, check out the collection page.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (3) 6 :

6 ) Create representations to explain the unique and diverse life cycles of organisms other than humans (e.g., flowering plants, frogs, butterflies), including commonalities such as birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

[SC2015] LSC7 (7) 10 :

10 ) Use evidence and scientific reasoning to explain how characteristic animal behaviors (e.g., building nests to protect young from cold, herding to protect young from predators, attracting mates for breeding by producing special sounds and displaying colorful plumage, transferring pollen or seeds to create conditions for seed germination and growth) and specialized plant structures (e.g., flower brightness, nectar, and odor attracting birds that transfer pollen; hard outer shells on seeds providing protection prior to germination) affect the probability of successful reproduction of both animals and plants.

Flowering plants have many parts that are required for reproduction. These parts, including the stamen, pistil, and ovary, work together to make seeds through the process of fertilization.

The classroom resource provides a video that will describe the process of reproduction in flowering plants. After utilizing this resource, the students can complete the short test to assess their understanding.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (3) 6 :

6 ) Create representations to explain the unique and diverse life cycles of organisms other than humans (e.g., flowering plants, frogs, butterflies), including commonalities such as birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

[SC2015] (4) 9 :

9 ) Examine evidence to support an argument that the internal and external structures of plants (e.g., thorns, leaves, stems, roots, colored petals, xylem, phloem) and animals (e.g., heart, stomach, lung, brain, skin) function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Mosses and ferns fall into two types: vascular and non-vascular. Vascular means they have tubes running throughout that can carry water and nutrients. Non-vascular plants, like liverworts, do not have tubes, so they are much smaller.

This resource presents a short slide show about the reproduction of mosses and ferns, which use spores to reproduce. After utilizing this resource, the students can complete the short test to assess their understanding. 

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (3) 6 :

6 ) Create representations to explain the unique and diverse life cycles of organisms other than humans (e.g., flowering plants, frogs, butterflies), including commonalities such as birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

[SC2015] (4) 9 :

9 ) Examine evidence to support an argument that the internal and external structures of plants (e.g., thorns, leaves, stems, roots, colored petals, xylem, phloem) and animals (e.g., heart, stomach, lung, brain, skin) function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

[SC2015] LSC7 (7) 10 :

10 ) Use evidence and scientific reasoning to explain how characteristic animal behaviors (e.g., building nests to protect young from cold, herding to protect young from predators, attracting mates for breeding by producing special sounds and displaying colorful plumage, transferring pollen or seeds to create conditions for seed germination and growth) and specialized plant structures (e.g., flower brightness, nectar, and odor attracting birds that transfer pollen; hard outer shells on seeds providing protection prior to germination) affect the probability of successful reproduction of both animals and plants.

Angiosperm plants reproduce by producing seeds inside a flower. There are two kinds of angiosperms: monocotyledons and dicotyledons.

The classroom resource provides a video that will describe the process of reproduction of flowering plants. After utilizing this resource, the students can complete the short test to assess their understanding.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (3) 6 :

6 ) Create representations to explain the unique and diverse life cycles of organisms other than humans (e.g., flowering plants, frogs, butterflies), including commonalities such as birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

[SC2015] (4) 9 :

9 ) Examine evidence to support an argument that the internal and external structures of plants (e.g., thorns, leaves, stems, roots, colored petals, xylem, phloem) and animals (e.g., heart, stomach, lung, brain, skin) function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

[SC2015] LSC7 (7) 10 :

10 ) Use evidence and scientific reasoning to explain how characteristic animal behaviors (e.g., building nests to protect young from cold, herding to protect young from predators, attracting mates for breeding by producing special sounds and displaying colorful plumage, transferring pollen or seeds to create conditions for seed germination and growth) and specialized plant structures (e.g., flower brightness, nectar, and odor attracting birds that transfer pollen; hard outer shells on seeds providing protection prior to germination) affect the probability of successful reproduction of both animals and plants.

Plants that reproduce without seeds use several different methods, like budding, plant runners, and spores.

This resource presents a short slide show about the process of reproduction in plants that do not have seeds. After utilizing this resource, the students can complete the short test to assess their understanding. 

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (3) 6 :

6 ) Create representations to explain the unique and diverse life cycles of organisms other than humans (e.g., flowering plants, frogs, butterflies), including commonalities such as birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

In this lesson, students listen to a read-aloud of the Eric Carle picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Then they watch a time-lapse video of the monarch butterfly life cycle and create their own picture books.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SC2015] (3) 6 :

6 ) Create representations to explain the unique and diverse life cycles of organisms other than humans (e.g., flowering plants, frogs, butterflies), including commonalities such as birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

This resource presents a short slide show about the life cycle of a variety of animals and insects. After utilizing this resource, the students can complete the short test to assess their understanding. Students can use the information presented in this resource to create their own representation of an animal's life cycle.