Content Outline

Massachusetts Science Framework Standard(s)

Concept Objective

Associated Mathematics Skills

Prerequisite Skills

Characteristics of Living Things

Plants/Animals

[33STE]Recognize that animals and plants are living things that grow, reproduce, and need food, air and water.

 [34STE] Differentiate between living and nonliving things. Group both living and nonliving things according to the characteristics that they share.

Compare differences between living and non living things.

Identify people, animals, and plants as living things.

Identify the attributes of objects as a foundation for sorting and classifying, e.g., a red truck, a red block, and a red ball share the attribute of being red; a square block, a square cracker, and a square book share the attribute of being square shaped.

Sort and classify objects by color, shape, size, number, and other properties.

Content Outline

Massachusetts Science Framework Standard(s)

Concept Objective

Associated Mathematics Skills

Prerequisite Skills

Characteristics of Living Things

Plants/Animals

[33STE]Recognize that plants (and animals) are living things that grow, reproduce, and need food, air and water.

[34STE] Differentiate between living and nonliving things. Group both living and nonliving things according to the characteristics that they share.

Identify the parts of a plant.

Observe, collect and compare different plants.

Discuss why some plants change in appearance.

Identify the characteristics of an insect as having three body parts and six legs.

Compare various insects according to their similarities and differences.

Identify the attributes of objects as a foundation for sorting and classifying, e.g., a red truck, a red block, and a red ball share the attribute of being red; a square block, a square cracker, and a square book share the attribute of being square shaped.

Sort and classify objects by color, shape, size, number, and other properties

Compare differences between living and non living things.

Identify people, animals, and plants as living things.

Content Outline

Massachusetts Science Framework Standard(s)

Concept Objective

Associated Mathematics Skills

Prerequisite Skills

Characteristics of Living Things

Plants

[34STE]Differentiate between living and nonliving things according to the characteristics that they share.

[33STE]Recognize that plants (and animals) are living things that grow, reproduce, and need food, air and water.

Name the things plants need to grow.

Describe the parts and functions of each plant

Identify trees as the world’s largest plants.

Identify the similarities and differences between trees and other plants.

Identify the attributes of objects as a foundation for sorting and classifying, e.g., a red truck, a red block, and a red ball share the attribute of being red; a square block, a square cracker, and a square book share the attribute of being square shaped.

Sort and classify objects by color, shape, size, number, and other properties

Identify the parts of a plant.

Observe, collect and compare different plants.

Discuss why some plants change in appearance.

Identify the characteristics of an insect as having three body parts and six legs.

Compare various insects according to their similarities and differences.

Content Outline

Massachusetts Science Framework Standard(s)

Concept Objective

Associated Mathematics Skills

Prerequisite Skills

Characteristics of Living Things

Animals

[34STE] Differentiate between living and nonliving things. Group both living and nonliving things according to the characteristics that they share.

Classify animals that are active at night.

Compare and contrast night and day animals.

Group animals by basic characteristics.

Identify the characteristics of animals that make them “living”.

Identify the attributes of objects as a foundation for sorting and classifying, e.g., a red truck, a red block, and a red ball share the attribute of being red; a square block, a square cracker, and a square book share the attribute of being square shaped.

Sort and classify objects by color, shape, size, number, and other properties

Identify the characteristics of an insect as having three body parts and six legs.

Compare various insects according to their similarities and differences.

Content Outline

Massachusetts Science Framework Standard(s)

Concept Objective

Associated Mathematics Skills

Prerequisite Skills

Plants Structures and Functions

Plants

 Classify plants and animals according to physical characteristics that they share.

 Identify the structures in plants (leaves, roots, flowers, stem, bark, wood) that are responsible for food production, support, water, transport, reproduction, growth and protection.

 Recognize that plants and animals go through predictable life cycles that include birth, growth, development, reproduction and death.

 Describe the major stages that characterize the life cycle of the frog and butterfly as they go through metamorphosis.

Understand that green plants make their own food.

Understand what plants need to grow.

Make predictions based on past experience with plants.

 Demonstrate understanding of plant’s life cycles.

Provide evidence that organisms use some basic chemical building blocks including water and oxygen and have their own ways to get needed energy and nutrients.

Identify the attributes of objects as a foundation for sorting and classifying, e.g., a red truck, a red block, and a red ball share the attribute of being red; a square block, a square cracker, and a square book share the attribute of being square shaped.

Sort and classify objects by color, shape, size, number, and other properties

Name the things plants need to grow.

Describe the parts and functions of each plant

Identify trees as the world’s largest plants.

Identify the similarities and differences between trees and other plants.

Content Outline

Massachusetts Science Framework Standard(s)

Concept Objective

Associated Mathematics Skills

Prerequisite Skills

Plants Structures and Functions

Animals

Classify animals according to the physical characteristics they have.

Differentiate between living and nonliving things.  Group both living and nonliving things according to the characteristics that they share.

[35STE]Recognize that plants and animals have life cycles, and that life cycles vary for different living things.

Compare body structure, life histories, and habitats of insects and spiders.

Identify the unique characteristics of an earthworm and understand its relationship to man and other animals.

Understand that different structures serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction.

Demonstrate awareness that there are millions of kinds of living things on earth and that the number of species is not known.

Give examples of how different animal have features that help them thrive in different places.  Recognize that these features may be external, internal, or behavioral.

Identify the attributes of objects as a foundation for sorting and classifying, e.g., a red truck, a red block, and a red ball share the attribute of being red; a square block, a square cracker, and a square book share the attribute of being square shaped.

Sort and classify objects by color, shape, size, number, and other properties.

Classify animals that are active at night.

Compare and contrast night and day animals.

Group animals by basic characteristics.

Identify the characteristics of animals that make them “living”.

Content Outline

Massachusetts Science Framework Standard(s)

Concept Objective

Associated Mathematics Skills

Prerequisite Skills

Animals (continued)

(continued)

Provide examples of how living organisms meet their needs by interacting with living and nonliving parts of their environment.

Observe and demonstrate ways that all organisms’ effect changes in the environment where they live. Recognize that some of these changes are detrimental to themselves and other organisms, whereas others are beneficial.

Observe ways that changes in environmental factors such as humidity, temperature, and light also affect the organisms in an environment

Content Outline

Massachusetts Science Framework Standard(s)

Concept Objective

Associated Mathematics Skills

Prerequisite Skills

Plant structures and Functions

(Characteristics of Plants and Animals)

(Life Cycles)

[42STE] Identify the structures in plants (leaves, roots, flowers, stem bark, wood) that are responsible for food production, support, water transport, reproduction growth, and protection.

[43STE] Recognize that plants and animals go through predictable life cycles that include birth, growth, development, reproduction and death.

[44STE]Describe the major stages that characterize the life cycle of the frog and butterfly as they go through metamorphosis.

Infer what plants and animals need to survive.

Explain that to survive, living things must be able to get what they need to live from their environment

Classify foods as of plant or animal origin.

Describe how decomposers change food.

Distinguish between decomposers and producers.

Compare and contrast herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, and decomposers.

Identify sequence of feeding relationships in a food chain.

Prediction and estimating

Represent real situations and mathematical relationships with concrete models, tables, graphs, and rules in words and with symbols, e.g., input-output tables.

Produce and interpret graphs and understand that green plants make their own food.

Classify plants and animals according to the physical characteristics that they share.

Understand that green plants make their own food.

Understand what plants need to grow.

Make predictions based on past experience with plants.

 Demonstrate understanding of plant’s life cycles.

Provide evidence that organisms use some basic chemical building blocks including water and oxygen and have their own ways to get needed energy and nutrients.

Content Outline

Massachusetts Science Framework Standard(s)

Concept Objective

Associated Mathematics Skills

Prerequisite Skills

Adaptations of Living Things

Describe how organisms meet some of their needs in an environment XE "environment"  by using behaviors (patterns of activities) in response to information (stimuli) received from the environment. Recognize that some animal behaviors are instinctive XE "instinctive behaviors"  (e.g., turtles burying their eggs), and others are learned (e.g., humans building fires for warmth, chimpanzees learning how to use tools).

Recognize plant behaviors, such as the way seedlings’ stems grow toward light and their roots grow downward in response to gravity.   Recognize that many plants and animals can survive harsh environments because of seasonal behaviors.

Observe, infer, and describe how certain animal features (adaptations) help animals get food, drink water, make shelter, and maintain body heat.

Observe how some animals respond to changes in their surroundings.

Observe how plants react under different environmental conditions, e.g., leaves turn toward light, leaves turn brown without light.

Represent real situations and mathematical relationships with concrete models, tables, graphs, and rules in words and with symbols.

Observe and illustrate ways that organisms of the same kind differ in some of their characteristics and that sometimes the differences give organisms an advantage in surviving and reproducing.

Compare the parts of living things and show how they are adapted for a certain environment.

Evaluate the behaviors of living things that suit an organism to a particular lifestyle.

Identify defensive adaptations.

Content Outline

Massachusetts Science Framework Standard(s)

Concept Objective

Associated Mathematics Skills

Prerequisite Skills

Living Things and Their Environment

Heredity

Recognize that people and other animals interact with the environment through their senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.

[36STE] Describe ways in which many plants and animal closely resemble their parents in observed appearance.

Understand that certain parts of our body are used to sense the world around us.

List the five senses: hearing seeing, tasting, feeling, touching, and smelling.

Discuss how using our senses help us to find out about the world.

Note how parents resemble their offspring.

Identify the attributes of objects as a foundation for sorting and classifying, e.g., a red truck, a red block, and a red ball share the attribute of being red; a square block, a square cracker, and a square book share the attribute of being square shaped.

Sort and classify objects by color, shape, size, number, and other properties

Content Outline

Massachusetts Science Framework Standard(s)

Concept Objective

Associated Mathematics Skills

Prerequisite Skills

Living Things and Their Environment

Heredity

[39STE]Recognize changes in appearance that animals and plants go through as the seasons change.

[36STE] Describe ways in which many plants and animal closely resemble their parents in observed appearance.

Classify animals according to their habitat.

Discuss how and why an animal uses camouflage.

Identify characteristics of animals and how they adapt to survive in different seasons. (hibernation, migration)

Match offspring to appropriate parents based upon similar traits or characteristics.

Identify the attributes of objects as a foundation for sorting and classifying, e.g., a red truck, a red block, and a red ball share the attribute of being red; a square block, a square cracker, and a square book share the attribute of being square shaped.

Sort and classify objects by color, shape, size, number, and other properties

Understand that certain parts of our body are used to sense the world around us.

List the five senses: hearing seeing, tasting, feeling, touching, and smelling.

Discuss how using our senses help us to find out about the world.

Note how parents resemble their offspring.

Content Outline

Massachusetts Science Framework Standard(s)

Concept Objective

Associated Mathematics Skills

Prerequisite Skills

Living Things and Their Environment

Heredity

Identify the ways in which an organism’s habitat provides for its basic needs (plants require air, water, nutrients, and light; animals require food, water, air, and shelter).

[36STE]Describe ways in which many plants and animals closely resemble their parents in observed appearance.

Relate plants’ and animals’ adaptations to how they help the organism survive in its habitat.

Infer how plant parts or their structures aid in the survival of the organism

Compare animal babies to their parents.

Identify parents of offspring through observation of similar traits

Identify the attributes of objects as a foundation for sorting and classifying, e.g., a red truck, a red block, and a red ball share the attribute of being red; a square block, a square cracker, and a square book share the attribute of being square shaped.

Sort and classify objects by color, shape, size, number, and other properties.

Classify animals according to their habitat.

Discuss how and why an animal uses camouflage.

Identify characteristics of animals and how they adapt to survive in different seasons. (hibernation, migration)

Match offspring to appropriate parents based upon similar traits or characteristics.

Understand that certain parts of our body are used to sense the world around us.

List the five senses: hearing seeing, tasting, feeling, touching, and smelling.

Discuss how using our senses help us to find out about the world.

Content Outline

Massachusetts Science Framework Standard(s)

Concept Objective

Associated Mathematics Skills

Prerequisite Skills

Adaptations of Living Things

Heredity

[45STE] Differentiate between observed characteristics of plants and animals that are fully inherited (e.g. color of flower, shape of leaves, color of eyes, number of appendages) and characteristics that are affects by the climate or environment.

[46STE]Give examples of how inherited characteristics may change over time as adaptations to changes in the environment that enable organisms to survive, (e.g. shape of beak or feet, placement of eyes on head, length of neck, shape of teeth, color)

[47STE]Give examples of how changes in the environment (drought, cold) have caused some plants and animals to die or move to new locations (migration).

Observe and illustrate ways that organisms of the same kind differ in some of their characteristics and that sometimes the differences give organisms an advantage in surviving and reproducing.

Compare the parts of living things and show how they are adapted for a certain environment.

Evaluate the behaviors of living things that suit an organism to a particular lifestyle.

Identify defensive adaptations.

Represent real situations and mathematical relationships with concrete models, tables, graphs, and rules in words and with symbols.

Compare animal babies to their parents.

Identify parents of offspring through observation of similar traits

Content Outline

Massachusetts Science Framework Standard(s)

Concept Objective

Associated Mathematics Skills

Prerequisite Skills

Adaptations of Living Things

Describe how organisms meet some of their needs in an environment XE "environment"  by using behaviors (patterns of activities) in response to information (stimuli) received from the environment. Recognize that some animal behaviors are instinctive XE "instinctive behaviors"  (e.g., turtles burying their eggs), and others are learned (e.g., humans building fires for warmth, chimpanzees learning how to use tools).

Recognize plant behaviors, such as the way seedlings’ stems grow toward light and their roots grow downward in response to gravity.   Recognize that many plants and animals can survive harsh environments because of seasonal behaviors, e.g., in winter some trees shed leaves, some animals hibernate, and other animals migrate.

Differentiate between learned and instinctive behaviors.

Explore ways plants and animals survive in their environments.

Represent real situations and mathematical relationships with concrete models, tables, graphs, and rules in words and with symbols.

Observe and illustrate ways that organisms of the same kind differ in some of their characteristics and that sometimes the differences give organisms an advantage in surviving and reproducing.

Compare the parts of living things and show how they are adapted for a certain environment.

Evaluate the behaviors of living things that suit an organism to a particular lifestyle.

Identify defensive adaptations.

Grade5

Adaptation of Living Things (continued)

Give examples of how organisms can cause changes in their environment to ensure survival.  Explain how some of these changes may affect the ecosystem.

Describe how energy derived from the sun is used by plants to produce sugars (photosynthesis) and is transferred within a food chain from producers (plants) to consumers to decomposers.

Content Outline

Massachusetts Science Framework Standard(s)

Concept Objective

Associated Mathematics Skills

Prerequisite Skills

Energy and Living Things

Describe how energy derived from the sun is used by plants to produce sugars (photosynthesis) and is transferred within a food chain from producers (plants) to consumers to decomposers

Provide evidence that organisms use some basic chemical building blocks including water and oxygen and have their own ways to get needed energy and nutrients.

Draw and label a diagram about photosynthesis.

Draw and label a food chain.

Explain the difference between a food chain and food web.

Determine values of variables in simple equations.                 

Observe and illustrate ways that organisms of the same kind differ in some of their characteristics and that sometimes the differences give organisms an advantage in surviving and reproducing.

Compare the parts of living things and show how they are adapted for a certain environment.

Evaluate the behaviors of living things that suit an organism to a particular lifestyle.

Identify defensive adaptations.

Content Outline

Massachusetts Science Framework Standard(s)

Concept Objective

Associated Mathematics Skills

Prerequisite Skills

Life Cycles

[35STE]Recognize that plants and animals have life cycles, and that life cycles vary for different living things.

Understand that animals have a life cycle.

Draw and label life cycles of an animal or plant. 

Become acquainted with different types of insects.

Describe and communicate the life cycle of the butterfly through drawings, graphs and writing.

Study and observe insects found around the schoolyard and release them unharmed.

Sequencing

Compare differences between living and non living things.

Identify people, animals, and plants as living things.

Content Outline

Massachusetts Science Framework Standard(s)

Concept Objective

Associated Mathematics Skills

Prerequisite Skills

Life Cycles

[35STE]Recognize that plants and animals have life cycles, and that life cycles vary for different living things.

Identify life cycle of common insect.

Sequencing numbers

Understand that animals have a life cycle.

Draw and label life cycles of an animal or plant. 

Become acquainted with different types of insects.

Describe and communicate the life cycle of the butterfly through drawings, graphs and writing.

Study and observe insects found around the schoolyard and release them unharmed.

Content Outline

Massachusetts Science Framework Standard(s)

Concept Objective

Associated Mathematics Skills

Prerequisite Skills

Evolution and Biodiversity

[37STE]Recognize that fossils provide us with information about living things that inhabited the earth years ago.

Compare fossils to one another and to living organisms.

Describe how fossils provide evidence of earth’s history.

Use pictures, models, tables, charts, graphs, words, number sentences, and mathematical notations to interpret mathematical relationships.