Food, Water, and Air: What Living Things Need to Survive!

Science Grades 2nd Grade 9:14 Video
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Lesson Description

This lesson explores the basic needs of all living things: food, water, and air. Students will learn how different plants and animals obtain these necessities in diverse environments.

Video Resource

What Living Things Need

marky mark

Duration: 9:14
Watch on YouTube

Key Concepts

  • All living things need food, water, and air to survive.
  • Plants and animals obtain food, water, and air in different ways.
  • Different environments offer different ways for living things to get what they need.

Learning Objectives

  • Students will be able to identify the three basic needs of all living things.
  • Students will be able to describe how different animals obtain food.
  • Students will be able to explain how some plants get water and make their own food.

Educator Instructions

  • Introduction (5 mins)
    Begin by asking students what they need to survive. Guide them to identify food, water, and air. Explain that this lesson will explore how all living things, including plants and animals, get these essential resources.
  • Video Viewing (7 mins)
    Play the "What Living Things Need" video. Encourage students to pay attention to the different ways plants and animals find food, water, and air.
  • Discussion (8 mins)
    After the video, facilitate a class discussion about the different examples shown in the video. Use the discussion questions below to guide the conversation.
  • Interactive Activity: Needs Sorting (10 mins)
    Divide students into small groups. Give each group a set of picture cards depicting various plants, animals, and environments. Have them sort the cards based on how the living things in the pictures obtain food, water and air. Examples: Lion eating a zebra(Food), cactus soaking up water (Water), and person breathing (Air)
  • Wrap-up (5 mins)
    Review the key concepts of the lesson. Ask students to share one thing they learned about how living things get food, water, or air. Assign the quizzes.

Interactive Exercises

  • Needs Sorting
    Students sort picture cards of plants, animals, and environments based on how they obtain food, water, and air. This can be done as group or individual activity.

Discussion Questions

  • What are the three things that all living things need to survive?
  • Can you name an animal from the video and describe how it gets its food?
  • How do plants get water?
  • How do plants make their own food?
  • How do animals get the air they need?

Skills Developed

  • Observation
  • Critical thinking
  • Classification
  • Listening Comprehension

Multiple Choice Questions

Question 1:

What are the three things that all living things need to live?

Correct Answer: Food, water, and air

Question 2:

How does a lion get its food?

Correct Answer: By hunting other animals

Question 3:

How does a plant get water?

Correct Answer: From its roots in the ground

Question 4:

What do plants need to make their own food?

Correct Answer: Sunlight

Question 5:

What helps us breathe?

Correct Answer: Air

Question 6:

Where do animals find water?

Correct Answer: In water holes, rivers, and ponds

Question 7:

What part of the carrot plant do we eat?

Correct Answer: The root

Question 8:

Which animal uses its long tongue to catch insects?

Correct Answer: Woodpecker

Question 9:

What is one thing desert plants may use to store water?

Correct Answer: Stem

Question 10:

What do green leaves give off that animals need?

Correct Answer: Oxygen

Fill in the Blank Questions

Question 1:

All living things need _____, water, and air to live.

Correct Answer: food

Question 2:

Plants take in water through their ________.

Correct Answer: roots

Question 3:

We breathe in ________ from the air.

Correct Answer: oxygen

Question 4:

Plants make their own food using ________.

Correct Answer: sunlight

Question 5:

A lion eats other ________ to get food.

Correct Answer: animals

Question 6:

A cactus stores ________ inside to use later.

Correct Answer: water

Question 7:

The water we drink contains mostly ________.

Correct Answer: water

Question 8:

The woodpecker listens for ________ under the bark of a tree.

Correct Answer: insects

Question 9:

Animals breathe out _________ ___________.

Correct Answer: carbon dioxide

Question 10:

Leaves need ________ ___________ from the air to make food for a plant.

Correct Answer: carbon dioxide

Educational Standards

2.LS2.1:[Standard] Plan and conduct an investigation to determine if plants need sunlight and water to grow. 2.LS4.1:[Standard] Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats. 2.ESS2.3:[Standard] Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth and that it can be solid or liquid.

Teaching Materials

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