Free Life Science Teacher Lessons
Life Science includes materials to help teachers deliver exemplary science lessons without spending an extraordinary amount of time preparing. Use Teacher Explains and Teachers Guides to learn background information, frame questions for class discussion, and prepare for common student misconceptions. Printable and video formats allow for lesson preparation on the go. In addition, record-keeping and planning are only a click away! Use this resource to see how Teacher Explain videos support each module in Life Science.
Free Living/Nonliving Teacher Lessons
All living things need food, water, air, and a place to live and grow. This module explains the needs and characteristics that all living things share and guides students as they discover the differences between living and nonliving things.
Core Concept
Living things have four specific characteristics: they are made up of parts, they use energy to grow, they respond to their environment, and they reproduce.
Essential Vocabulary
animal, characteristic, energy, environment, extinct, living, needs, nonliving, offspring, plant, reproduce, resemble, respond, shelter, wants
Free Plants Teacher Lessons
Giant redwood trees, soft green blades of grass, bright tulips blooming in spring — plants are living things. This module introduces students to the world of plants as they discover that the needs of plants are much like their own needs.
Core Concept
Plants are living things that have needs, reproduce, respond to their environment, and are made up of different parts.
Essential Vocabulary
absorb, characteristic, flower, fruit, germinate, leaves, life cycle, nutrients, photosynthesis, produce, reproduce, respond, root, seed, seedling, stem
Free Animals Teacher Lessons
Scaly swimming fish, high-jumping frogs, soft and furry bunnies, slithering snakes, feathery birds and fluttering butterflies–animals come in many different shapes and sizes. This module allows students to explore the many different types of animals and the characteristics that they all share.
Core Concept
Animals are living things that have needs, reproduce, respond to their environment, and are made up of different parts.
Essential Vocabulary
behavior, energy, hibernate, invertebrate, life cycle, migrate, needs, offspring, reproduce, respond, shelter, vertebrate
Free Food Webs Teacher Lessons
All living things need energy to live and grow. Most plants get their energy from sunlight whereas people and other animals get their energy from the food they eat. This module explores the relationships between living things and the energy sources they need to thrive.
Core Concept
Food chains and food webs illustrate the flow of energy through a system of living things.
Essential Vocabulary
carnivore, depend, energy, energy flow, food chain, food web, herbivore, omnivore, predator, prey
Free Habitats Teacher Lessons
Plants and animals live in many different habitats such as the forest, desert, ocean, pond, or farm. Although these habitats may look very different, they all meet the needs of the plants and animals that live there. This module introduces students to different types of habitats and the living things that are found in them.
Core Concept
A habitat is made up of the living and nonliving things an animal or plant needs to thrive.
Essential Vocabulary
adaptation, camouflage, depend, ecosystem, environment, habitat, needs, rainfall, temperature, thrive
Free Eco Awareness Teacher Lessons
All of the living things that make up the environment depend on each other to meet their needs–even people! When changes happen in the environment, living things respond. In this module, students see how changes in an environment can affect the natural world as they learn the the importance of being eco aware.
Core Concept
We can show that we are eco aware by practicing the three Rs of reduce, reuse, and recycle as well as being sensitive to the needs of the other living things that share the environment with us.
Essential Vocabulary
eco awareness, endangered, environment, fragile, habitat, invasive, litter, natural, pollution, recycle, reduce, reuse
In Life Science, students practice and hone their skills at classifying, categorizing, observation, and record keeping, all while playing games, participating in hands-on activities, and testing their knowledge with animated online evaluations. Life Science is divided into two units with three modules in each. Living Things contains the modules Living and Nonliving, Plants, and Animals. Balance in Nature contains modules on Food Webs, Habitats, and Eco Awareness.
