Grade Level Expectations and Benchmarks for Science
Grades K–2

Strand G: How Living Things Interact with Their Environment

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Standard 1: The student understands the competitive, interdependent, cyclic nature of living things in the environment.

Benchmark SC.G.1.1.1: The student knows that environments have living and nonliving parts.

First Grade

1. knows that environments have living and nonliving parts.

Appropriate GEMS Teacher Guides: Ant Homes Under the Ground, Buzzing a Hive, Penguins and Their Young, Terrarium Habitats

Benchmark SC.G.1.1.2: The student knows that plants and animals are dependent upon each other for survival.

Kindergarten

1. understands ways that animals obtain food from plants and other animals.

Appropriate GEMS Teacher Guides: Animal Defenses, Ant Homes Under the Ground, Buzzing a Hive, Eggs Eggs Everywhere, Elephants and Their Young, Hide a Butterfly, Ladybugs, Mother Opossum and Her Babies, Penguins and Their Young, Terrarium Habitats, Tree Homes

First Grade

1. knows that plants produce oxygen and food for animals.

Appropriate GEMS Teacher Guides: Ant Homes Under the Ground, Buzzing a Hive, Tree Homes

3. understands that living things are part of a food chain.

Appropriate GEMS Teacher Guides: Ant Homes Under the Ground, Buzzing a Hive, Ladybugs, On Sandy Shores, Terrarium Habitats

Second Grade

1. understands that there is an interdependency of plants and animals that can be shown in a food web.

Appropriate GEMS Teacher Guides: Aquatic Habitats, Terrarium Habitats

Benchmark SC.G.1.1.3: The student knows that there are many different plants and animals living in many different kinds of environments (e.g., hot, cold, wet, dry, sunny, and dark).

First Grade

1. knows some characteristics of different environments and some plants and animals found there.

Appropriate GEMS Teacher Guides: Ant Homes Under the Ground, Buzzing a Hive, Eggs Eggs Everywhere, Elephants and Their Young, Hide a Butterfly, Ladybugs, Mother Opossum and Her Babies, Penguins and Their Young, Terrarium Habitats, Tree Homes

Second Grade

1. understands that living organisms need to be adapted to their environment to survive.

Appropriate GEMS Teacher Guides: Aquatic Habitats, Buzzing a Hive, On Sandy Shores, Terrarium Habitats, Tree Homes

Benchmark SC.G.1.1.4: The student knows that animals and plants can be associated with their environment by an examination of their structural characteristics.

Second Grade

1. knows that animals and plants can be associated with their environment by an examination of their structural characteristics (for example, physical structures are adaptations that allow plants and animals to survive, such as gills in fish, lungs in mammals).

Appropriate GEMS Teacher Guides: Aquatic Habitats, Buzzing a Hive, On Sandy Shores, Terrarium Habitats, Tree Homes

Standard 2: The student understands the consequences of using limited natural resources.

Benchmark SC.G.2.1.1: The student knows that if living things do not get food, water, shelter, and space, they will die.

Kindergarten

1. knows that if living things do not get food, water, shelter, and space, they will die.

Appropriate GEMS Teacher Guides: Animal Defenses, Ant Homes Under the Ground, Buzzing a Hive, Eggs Eggs Everywhere, Elephants and Their Young, Ladybugs, Mother Opossum and Her Babies, Penguins and Their Young, Terrarium Habitats, Tree Homes

First Grade

1. understands why living things must have food, water, shelter, and space to survive.

Appropriate GEMS Teacher Guides: Ant Homes Under the Ground, Buzzing a Hive, Eggs Eggs Everywhere, Elephants and Their Young, Ladybugs, Mother Opossum and Her Babies, Penguins and Their Young, Terrarium Habitats, Tree Homes

Benchmark SC.G.2.1.2: The student knows that the activities of humans affect plants and animals in many ways.

First Grade

1. understands that there are limited resources available for all living things to use.

Appropriate GEMS Teacher Guides: Elephants and Their Young, Terrarium Habitats

Second Grade

1. knows that human beings cause changes in their environment, and these changes can be positive (for example, creating refuges, replanting deforested regions, creating laws to restrict burning) or negative (for example, introducing exotic organisms, deforestation, littering, contaminating water and air).

Appropriate GEMS Teacher Guides: Aquatic Habitats, On Sandy Shores