Understanding the Basic Needs of Living Things

Emily McBride
First Grade • Science

Common Core Standards:

1.LS.1: Living things have basic needs, which are met by obtaining materials from the physical
environment.
1.LS.2: Living things survive only in environments that meet their needs.

Lesson Summary:
This lesson focuses on the basic needs of living things. Before teaching the students anything,
there is first a review. The review will give students a refresher of their previous science
knowledge about differentiating living things and nonliving things. To teach the required
content, the teacher will go through a Prezi to present the content. After learning about what
organism need to live, students will create their own infographic to show how a certain
organism stays alive. Students will then present their infographic to the class and will then be
graded as the final assessment.

Estimated Duration: Four 30-45 minute periods

Commentary: The first day of instruction is focused on refreshing the students’ memories. Towards
the end of the 45 minute period, students will learn a song to the tune of “Frere Jacques” to get
them excited about the lesson. After the lesson is taught, students will be creating an infographic to
show what they learned. A challenge that teachers may run into is giving them freedom. Although it
is laid out pretty clearly, there is still room for creativity and students to have very different final
products.

Instructional Procedures:
Day One: Review and Pre-Assessment
At the start of class, each student will pull out their personal iPad or use one of the schools’
iPads. On their tablet they will open up their Google Drive account. They will open the
“Shared With Me” folder where they will see a Google Drawing named “List of Living Things
and Nonliving Things - Understanding the Basic Needs of Living Things.” Instead of opening
the document, students will tap the button with three dots and make a copy. It will then open
a copy of that document for students to work on. Before beginning, they will edit the name of
the document by replacing the word “Copy” and insert their name their instead. Students will
then share that document with the teacher. After they have set up their document, they will
begin working individually to formulate a list of living things and nonliving things. Teachers
should lead students to put as many on the list as possible. They will then have five-seven
minutes to share their list with a group. They will then talk about the similarities between the
 two groups. After time is up, the class will come together discuss the similarities and
differences between living things and nonliving things. To do this, the teacher will project a
Venn Diagram on the SmartBoard. The teacher will call on individual students to come to the
board and write either a similarity between the two groups or a property that makes the two
groups similar. In this part of the lesson, they will get minimal help from the teacher. This will
give the teacher a good idea about what these students know and what they don’t. Once the
class completes the Venn Diagram, ask the students two questions: “How do you know these
things are alive?” and “What do living things need to live?” After reviewing for the period, tell
the students that they will be focusing on living things throughout the next few lessons. To
get them excited, have them sing a song with you.

**to the tune of Frere Jaques

It is living!
It is living!
I know why!
I know why!
It eats and breathes and grows,
It eats and breathes and grows,
It's alive!
It's alive!

Song Credit: Alexandra Parlamas (https://www.education.com/lesson-plan/living-and-nonliving-

things/)

Day Two: Presentation of New Information

At the beginning of class, refresh the students with the song they learned in the previous
lesson and have the students get up and sing along before the lesson begins. After students
get settled back into their seats, the teacher will begin by projecting the Venn Diagram that
the class completed in the previous lesson. After doing a quick three-five minute discussion
and reflection, the teacher will then project the Prezi on the board. The teacher will need to
walk through the Prezi slide by slide with the class. Throughout the Prezi there will be videos,
pictures, and many other things that will help students understand what living things need to
survive. The Prezi will also teach students the importance of an organism’s environment and
how vital that is to survival. They will learn new vocabulary terms like organism, energy,
environment, habitat and resources. While the teacher is going through the notes, students
will be taking notes on a provided guided notes worksheet. After going through the Prezi, the
teacher should present their project. To present the project, start by showing an example of
what they will be creating to get them engaged and excited. Their project will be an
infographic of a living thing of their choice. They will create their infographic
https://create.piktochart.com/dashboard. When they go home tonight, they will have to
decide which living thing they will study.
Day Three: Infographic Work Day
The students should be coming to class with a final decision of what living thing they will
research and make an infographic on. Keep the example projected on the board but have
students research their own living thing. Students will start by grabbing and iPad and going
on https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/ and searching their living thing. They will need to
find and include the following in their infographic:
- where the organism lives
- what kind of environment it lives in (desert, arctic, etc.)
- how it receives energy (foods they eat or use of sunshine)
- resources that the organism utilizes
Students will need to have all the listed information included as well as a photograph of their
chosen living thing. If students don’t finish, they will need to take it home to complete. They
will need a completed infographic for the next day of the lesson. After completing the
infographic, students should print it out to be presented during the next period.

Day Four: Presenting Infographics

Students should be coming to class with a completed infographic printed out. Students’
names will be randomly drawn. They will bring the teacher their infographic and it will be
projected on the board with the Elmo. The student will then read through their infographic.
This will continue throughout the class period until every student has presented. Depending
on class size, the presentations may need to also need to bleed into another period.

Pre-Assessment:
At the start of the lesson, students formulated a list of living things and nonliving things.
Students shared this with the teacher. The teacher also ran a discussion where students
worked together to complete a Venn Diagram on the SmartBoard.

Scoring Guidelines:
The list of living things and nonliving things can simply be looked at to see the
accuracy. When reviewing the accuracy of the lists, if students:
Minimal to No Knowledge; Needs Extensive Review (0% – 25%)
Some Knowledge; Needs More Review (25% – 50%)
Has a Decent Grasp on Content; Benefit from Some Review (50% – 75%)
Mastery of Content; Review Beneficial but is Not Necessary (75% – 100%)
The Venn Diagram activity is an observation based assessment of students
understanding. It is up to the teacher’s judgement on whether or not more
review is necessary.
Post-Assessment:
After completing the lesson, students will be creating an infographic based on one specific
living thing. The infographic will be taken as a summative grade to reflect their understanding
of the content. The infographic has specific criteria that students will need to include.

Scoring Guidelines:
Each piece of criteria will be worth 10 points, making the whole infographic
worth 50 points. Of those 50 points, 40 of the points will reflect hitting the
different criteria. The last 10 points will be for including an image of the
organism, map of where the organism lives, picture of habitat, title, and their
name. Each of these components will be worth two points.

8-10 5-7 3-4 0-2

Includes detailed Includes some Includes little to

Where the explanation of explanation of no explanation of No mention of
Organism Lives where the where the where the location
organism lives organism lives organism lives

Includes detailed Includes some Includes little to

explanation of the explanation of the no explanation of
No mention of
Habitat habitat the habitat the the habitat the
habitat
organism needs to organism needs organism needs
live in to live in to live in

Includes detailed Includes some Includes little to No mention of

explanation of how explanation of no explanation of how the
Energy
the organism how the organism how the organism organism
receives energy receives energy receives energy receives energy

Includes some Includes little to

Includes detailed No mention of
explanation of no explanation of
explanation of what the resources
Resources what resources what resources
resources the the organism
the organism the organism
organism utilizes utilizes
utilizes utilizes

Image of the
organism, map
Includes 3-4 of Includes 1-2 of Includes none of
of where the Includes all of the
the correct add- the correct add- the correct add-
organism lives, correct add-ins on
ins on the ins on the ins on the
picture of the infographic
infographic infographic infographic
habitat, title,
and their name
Differentiated Instructional Support
For gifted students, teachers can have the students will watch several videos that detail the
different aspects of living things. The assignment will cover classification of living things. They
will learn the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-BEu50zWHE After completing the video, students will
be given a list of animals to decipher.

For students who are struggling, teachers can have them complete a flipbook. This flipbook
will show each thing an organism needs to survive. They will draw pictures and explain each
piece. The students will work alongside the teacher so they can better understand the
material.

Extension
https://jr.brainpop.com/science/animals/classifyinganimals/
This website has a video they students can watch and then do a corresponding activity. The
video challenges students to understand the different groups of living organisms and how to
differentiate them. This will extend their knowledge by understanding more than just living
and nonliving.

Homework Options and Home Connections

With this particular lesson, there will not be any assigned homework. Teachers should have
their students go home and decide on their animal for the infographic after the completion of
day two’s lesson. Encourage students to go home and talk to their parents and/or older
siblings about what living thing they should research.

If students don’t finish their infographic during Day 3 of the lesson, they will need to go home
and finish.

Interdisciplinary Connections
Reading: Students are reading about their organism. From there, they have to retain and
understand that information to move onto the next step of the infographic.
Writing: Students are explaining the basic needs of their organism. To get full credit, students
need to have a detailed explanation.
Materials and Resources

For teachers - SmartBoard

- Elmo
- Projector
- Google account
- access to a color printer

For students - iPad

- Google account
- access to a color printer

Key Vocabulary
- living
- nonliving
- organism
- environment
- resources
- habitat

Additional Notes
N/A