Plants, animals, and habitats (grade 2) · lesson

Testing what plants need

💡 Plants need water and light, and a fair test changes just one thing.

To test if a plant needs light, use two plants. Give both water. Put one in the dark.

Change only one thing. Then you know what made the difference.

A plant with no water wilts. A plant with no light gets weak.

🧠 How to think about it

Plant A got water and light. Plant B got light but no water. Only water changed. So water made B wilt.

🏡 Try it at home

Water one plant this week. Skip water for a second plant of the same kind. Keep both in the sun. Compare after a week.

💡 Animals carry seeds to new places, where new plants can grow.

A bird eats berries. Later, it drops the seeds far away.

A squirrel buries acorns. Some acorns grow into new trees.

Burrs have tiny hooks. They stick to fur and ride away.

🧠 How to think about it

How did a plant get here? Look for clues. Hooks? It rode on fur. Berries? An animal ate them.

🏡 Try it at home

Put an old sock over your shoe. Walk in a grassy place with a grown-up. Look for seeds stuck to the sock!

💡 Bees carry pollen from flower to flower, and that helps plants make seeds and fruit.

Pollen is a fine yellow dust in flowers.

A bee has a fuzzy body. Pollen sticks to it.

The bee flies to the next flower. The pollen helps that flower make seeds.

🧠 How to think about it

Kids make a model bee from a fuzzy pipe cleaner. Why fuzzy? Because a real bee's fuzz picks up pollen.

🏡 Try it at home

Find a flower with a grown-up. Touch the middle with a cotton swab. Is there yellow pollen?

💡 Different habitats have different kinds and numbers of living things.

A habitat is a place where plants and animals live.

A wet pond or rain forest has many kinds of living things.

A dry desert has fewer kinds.

🧠 How to think about it

Read the graph. The pond bar is 9. The desert bar is 3. So the pond has more kinds. 9 take away 3 is 6 more.

🏡 Try it at home

Look in two places, like a lawn and a sidewalk crack. Count the kinds of living things in each.