Introduction to Kindergarten Earth Science Pond Study
-Next Generation Science Standard* K-ESS3-1
In order to study the survival needs of plants and animals, food webs, and food chains, we did this Kindergarten Earth Science Pond Study. Our full lesson for this project can be found in our Teachers Pay Teachers Store.
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We got some books about ponds before heading out to study a real pond. We used these books to answer questions on the worksheets and assessment for this lesson. The books we used were:
Pond Life (A Golden Guide from St. Martin’s Press)
Life in Ponds (Life in Water Biomes) by Lauren Coss
It’s a Frog’s Life!: My Story of Life in a Pond
Hey Diddle Diddle: A Food Chain Tale
Materials List for Kindergarten Earth Science Pond Study
–dip net
–magnifying lens
–clipboard
-paper/pencil
-disposable plastic containers
-egg cartons or ice cube trays
–plastic tea spoons
–Pond Study lesson
Step 1: Download the Pond Study lesson and complete the worksheets
Here is a sample worksheet from our lesson:
Step 2: Find a local pond, collect all your materials and head out to the study area
After studying the organisms which live in a pond ecosystem, we headed out to a local pond to see what we could find. Being a biology teacher, I would have loved to get out the microscope and put some pond water under it, but Jack is not at the point where he understands how to focus his eyes in the tiny eyepiece, so he gets frustrated and disinterested with even our tiny pocket jeweler microscope
For a “Homer gift” (that’s what my family calls gifts that you get others that YOU really want, referencing when Homer bought Marge a bowling ball, lol!) I would love to get Jack this Beginner Microscope Kit from AmScope for his birthday this year. A video microscope would be great too, but I haven’t researched them yet, so any suggestions in the comments would be welcome!
We used a bunch of take out plastic containers and an egg carton. We also used a butterfly net as a dip net
Step 3: Dip the net into areas where there is a lot of mud and debris and put your catch into the plastic containers
We tried to dip into the areas there there were leaves and lots of debris because that’s where things like to hang out.
Step 4: Search through the debris in the plastic containers and put anything you find that is alive into the egg cartons with a little bit of water
We put our “catch” into the plastic containers and looked through them using the plastic tea spoons. If we found anything interesting, we put it into the egg container and viewed it with our magnifying lens
Step 5: Record your findings using the clipboard and take notes for referencing later
We found a beetle and a dragonfly nymph.
We recorded what we found on our clipboard
We also found a small fish! There was a small black beetle that moved really fast and we think it was a whirligig beetle but we are not sure.
Step 6: Carefully return all collected materials to the pond
This was really fun and we can’t wait to try it out again soon, perhaps when the seasons change, to see the different things we can find! Of course, everything we caught, we did not hurt and we put back into the water as soon as we could.
Step 7: Complete the assessment from the Pond Study lesson
Here is a sample assessment page from the lesson:
Source:
NGSS Lead States. 2013. Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
*”Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is a registered trademark of Achieve. Neither Achieve nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.”
