1st Grade Life Science Websites
Websites for 1st Grade Life Science
Structure, Function, Information Processing
These websites support the NGSS standards at this grade level and are labeled by the type of website that it is (Student or Teacher Background, Student Online Activities, Teacher Activities, Student or Teacher Videos).
Back to our Grade Level Programs & Websites Page
| Resource Link | Abstract | Website Types |
|---|---|---|
| 4-H Virtual Farm: Poultry | Check out the "virtual chick hatch" at this 4H farming website for nice images and facts about chicken life cycles. Link back to main site for more farming info. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Background |
| A replica of the complete John James Audubon's Birds of America | A replica of the complete John James Audubon's Birds of America (1840-1844) Includes the full text, color plates, figures and bird calls | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| ABC Teach | This website is full of printable worksheets on an assortment of different topics. Many free printables. You can also sign up for membership to have access to interactives and more. | Teacher Activities;Worksheets |
| Aesop's Fables on-line | This website has a collection of Aesop's Fables and related lesson plans. Nice literature tie for many types of animals | Teacher Background |
| All About Frogs for Kids and Teachers | This web site has good background information, printable activities, units for teachers of frogs, frog craft ideas. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| All About Snails | This site has a lot of general information about snails. Has some advertizements related to snails. | Student Background;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| American Arachnology Association | Professional Association for the study of spiders. Has links for a North American Spider Identification Manual | Teacher Background |
| Apples & More | A variety of educational activities and projects about apples, including lessons for social studies, science, math, writing | Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Arctic Animal Crafts | This site has whimsical art projects that can be made by students with everyday objects. | Teacher Activities |
| Ask A Biologist - Arizona State University | Ask A Biologist began in 1997 in the School of Life Sciences. The site continues to be developed, and maintained by a dedicated group of volunteers. It is designed as an educational resource for students preK-12, and their teachers and parents. Ask A Biologist is visited by over 9,000 people every day and has answered more than 30,000 questions. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background;Teacher Videos;Worksheets |
| Bat Conservation International | Photos, descriptions, $40 Bat Trunk Rental for teachers. You can also look at PDF versions of their magazine. Lots of information about bats | Student Background;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| BatsLive: A Distance Learning Adventure | This site includes videos on various species of bats and the places they live. Find lots of other resources on background information, activity ideas, printable posters and more. | Student Videos;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background;Teacher Videos;Worksheets |
| Berkeley's Anise Swallowtail Caterpillars and Butterflies | This is a nice website created by a family in Berkeley. It has good tips on how to raise anise swallowtails. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| Binford Spider Lab | Greta Binford is a Spider Biologist at Lewis and Clark College. Her website has lots of infomation on all things spider. | Teacher Background |
| Blue Whale Feeding - Science Friday | Video and science behind Blue Whales doing barrels rolls while diving for krill. | Student Videos |
| Building a Terrarium | Instructions on how to make a simple terrarium in a 2 liter bottle. | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Butterflies and Moths of North America | Butterflies and Moths of North America,is a searchable database of verified butterfly and moth records in the United States and Mexico. This site includes dynamic distribution maps, photographs, species accounts, and species checklists for each county in the U.S. and each state in Mexico. | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| California Fish Video | From PBS dragonflyTV. Milan and Harison love the Long Beach Aquarium. Their favorite exhibit is the shark and ray pool where you can see and touch sea creatures up close! Our investigators are interested in how the rays eat, with a mouth on the underside of their bodies. Which leads them to ask: How does a fish’s mouth type affect what it eats? All aboard an adventure from the pool to the ocean in search of answers. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Student Videos;Teacher Activities |
| California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom | Resource that connects agriculture to your science curriculum. Simple machines, plants, life cycles, meeting needs, interdisciplinary topics and more. Lessons are split into K-3, 4-6, 7-8, and 9-12. Plus a Teacher Resource Guide. Everything is free to download. | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Chickscope | Using computers in the classroom with access to the Internet, students and teachers are able to access data generated from the latest scientific instruments. The goals include an increased understanding of the process of gathering scientific data and the opportunity to interact with scientists from several disciplines and students in other classrooms The access to unique scientific resources and expertise provides motivation for learning science and mathematics and stimulates interest in the scientific world. | Student Background;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Common Trees of the Pacific Northwest | How to identify trees of the Pacific Northwest (Many are common to California as well). Has a nice on-line dichotomous key and a "mystery tree" section that lets you test your identification skills using the dichotomous key. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Background |
| Dichotomous Tree Key | Learn how to identify different trees with this nice simple Dichotomous Tree Key | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Background |
| EPA Explorers Club | Natural resources activities and information. Fun and interesting activities, facts, and resources for kids and teachers about plants and animals, garbage and recycling, and the environment. | Student Background |
| Essig Museum of Entomology | Website for the Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Berkeley. Has a section on the insects and spiders of California, including those that are endangered. | Teacher Background |
| Explore.org Live Cams | Explore.org has a collection of live cams from around the world. Some are in museums/nature centers. Others are outdoors. Honey Bee Cam, Penguin Cam, Seal Cam, Wave Cam, kelp forest cam. Lots of options for animals and environments. | Student Videos |
| Frogs and Toads in Color and Sound | Frog and Toad photographs and calls. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| Fruits, Seeds and their Dispersal | Plants have a variety of ways in which they disperse their seeds, or the fruits containing the seeds. Four main groups of dispersal mechanisms can be recognized: animal, wind, water and self-dispersal. The size, shape and color of the fruit and seed, together with other features, reflect the method of dispersal. | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Green Schoolyard Resource Directory | Green Schoolyard Resource Directory for the San Francisco Bay Area For schools, parents, teachers, students, designers, and community members in San Francisco and around the Bay Area. | Teacher Background |
| Growing Minds - Farm to School | This site has a nice selection of activities and resources about how to create and use a school garden and its bounty | Student Background;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Kids Gardening Website | Great ideas for teaching from the garden – check out the unit on creating dyes from plants! A teacher resource website with information on grants, classroom stories, and ideas for getting gardening into the classroom. | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| KidZone - Activity ideas on bats | This KidZone page has links to worksheets, color sheets, puzzle pages | Worksheets |
| KidZone - Penguins | This website on Penguins (and much more) has activities for kids and teachers, good backround information and photos. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Meet the "Treetures" | Treetures is an environmental education program that focuses on trees. It uses whimsical characters - the treetures - that help introduce students to tree planting and care. Good content embedded in the stories of these treetures. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Missouri Botanical Garden Rainforest Pages | General site that has pictures and background information about the plants and animals of the rainforest, both temperate and tropical. Includes a page of rainforest links. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Background |
| MonarchWatch Butterfly Gardening | A comprehensive web site dedicated to the cultivation of butterfly gardens with links to purchase plants, larvae, and other needs. | Student Background;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Monterey Bay Aquarium Activities Page | This site has both printable and on-line acitivities for kids about the animals that live at and around the Monterey Bay. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Mrs. Jones Bat Page | This website was set up by an elementary teachers. She has included links to lots of videos about bats, craft ideas and literature connections | Student Videos;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background;Teacher Videos;Worksheets |
| National Geographic - Emperor Penguin Page | videos, slide shows, coloring pages and more. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| National Zoo Reptiles and Amphibians | Good site for background information on a wide variety of reptiles and amphibians. Limited kids page. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| Notice and Wonder | How can you turn a snail, worm, or roly-poly into an object of inquiry for a young learner? Simply ask a few questions! With this activity, you can help guide students in making observations of a living thing and asking relevant questions about its characteristics or behavior. | Teacher Activities |
| Oakland Zoo | This website lets you look at all the animals at the zoo in pictures and descriptions. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| Old Farmer's Almanac for Kids | This website is designed for elementary school students to look at weather forecasts, astronomy and backyard animals. You can easily switch between locations to look at other areas of the country. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background;Teacher Videos |
| Paso Partners Bilingual Instruction | The resource is designed to help elementary school teachers organize their classrooms and instructional activities in order to increase achievement of Hispanic primary-grade children whose first language is not English. The guides offer a curriculum plan, instructional strategies and activities, suggested teacher and student materials, and assessment procedures. Bilingual lessons on Five Senses, Spiders, Dinosaurs, Plants & Seeds, Human Body, Health, Oceans, Weather, Matter, Sun & Stars, Sound, Simple Machines. | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Pinterest Page: Kindergarten--Insects & Butterflies | This Pinterest page has a wide variety of activity pins for insects for Kindergarten. You do not need to belong to Pinterest to see the page | Teacher Activities |
| Pinterest: Bugs, Spiders, & Insects----ick! | This Pinterest page has a wide variety of activity pins for insects for Kindergarten. You do not need to belong to Pinterest to see the page | Teacher Activities |
| Salmon in the Classroom activity guide | From Oregon. Some lesson plans and some graphics/worksheets. | Teacher Activities;Worksheets |
| Salmon Life Cycle Sing Video | about 3 minutes. A parody of " I will Survive"- this educational video takes an inside look into the lives of salmon- their dangerous journies, emotional struggles , and ironically, their eventual deaths. | Student Videos |
| Salmon Life Cycle Video - Discovery | about 3 minutes. Good general information. Live action. | Student Videos |
| Save the Redwoods League | The website has many valuable resources about redwood trees and their habitats. Older students will enjoy the Redwoods Transect Lessons. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Scholastic: Study Jams | This short animated video clips are nice introductions or reviews to different science topics. Each general area has about 10 supporting videos. *Plants, *Animals, *Human Body, *Ecosystems, * Landforms, Rocks and Minerals *Weather, Climate *Solar System *Matter *Force and Motion *Energy, Light and Sound (includes electricity and magnetism) *Scientific Inquiry | Student Background;Student Videos |
| Science Trek | From Idaho public television. Geared towards elementary level. A good place to find a wide range of resources. | Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background;Worksheets |
| Sea World: Teacher's Guides | This site has downloadable teacher guides on many topics and grade levels having to do with Marine life. Examples are "Orcas,"Sea Lions and Seals," and "Penguins." | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Shedd Educational Adventures | Shedd Educational Adventures (SEA) contains a treasure trove of aquatic science resources for K-12 teachers and students. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Background |
| Skulls | Learn about skull structure and function, skull diversity, the living tissue associated with bones, and the role of the academy's skull collection in scientific research. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| Slug and Snail PowerPoint Presentations | Free PowerPoint Presentations on snails and slugs. | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Snail Activities | This site has activity ideas for "snail locomotion", "snail sheltes", "making tracks" and craft ideas. Is a commercial site with advertizements. | Teacher Activities |
| Snail Activity | Sure, snails appear a little slow but that’s no reason why we can’t race them! Enjoy the great snail race and learn some interesting facts about these unique creatures. This is a great activity to get kids involved so scroll down for the full lesson plan. | Teacher Activities |
| Snail-World.com | General site with interesting facts about different kinds of snails. Snails in cultuer, food, different kinds of snails....Some advertizing on site. | Teacher Background |
| Teacher Resource Guide to Agriculture issues | Search the guide on-line or order your free copy. Has resources on all sorts of things related to agriculture. How to grow plants and animals and how farming is related to nutrition and habitat health | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| The Chick Hatchery | This site from the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago features a Quicktime video of chicks hatching. | Student Background |
| The Crab Street Journal | This page offers teaching ideas, background info and a kidzone all on hermit crabs. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| The Insects Homepage | Wonderful world of insects has interesting facts and links to insects with amazing adaptations, insect habitats, sexual characteristics, anatomy and insect orders. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| Twiggle Magazine - Arctic Animal Activities | Twiggle Magazie designed this lesson plan with literature connections, printable booklets and worksheets, color sheets and more. Nice resource for pre-k to 1st grade | Student Background;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| WatchKnowLearn.org | This website has free educational videos on all topics (including science) for all age levels. There is specifically a section for younger learners. | Student Background;Student Videos;Teacher Background;Teacher Videos |
| What Would Happen | By examining invertebrates, students as young as preschoolers can experience the process of inquiry, spark and satisfy curiosity about living things, make and test predictions, and communicate the results of the investigation. | Student Background;Teacher Activities |
| Wisconsin Fast Plants | To know a plant, grow a plant! Exploration, discovery, and the scientific process come alive when your students grow Fast Plants in the classroom. These petite, hardy, attractive members of the mustard family whiz through an ultra-short life cycle in about 35-45 days. At their peak, the tallest plants only reach a height of 30 cm (about 12 inches); most plants are even shorter. Their website is education friendly and has activities ready to use in the classroom. | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Worms, Snails and Slugs...Oh My!! | Teachers' blog on K-2 lessons for inverebrates. Connects literature and hands-on lessons. | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |