3rd Grade Life Science Websites
Websites for 3rd Grade Life Science
Life Cycles and Traits / Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
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 |
| Animal Arts and Crafts | Arts and crafts in an animal theme | Teacher Activities |
| Animal Camouflage at pppst.com | Free power point presentation and other resources on camouflage | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Animals Past and Present | Lessons for elementary students about what happened to dinosaurs, what happened to animals that lived in Illinois 65 million years ago, 10 million years ago and today. Focused on animals of Illinois, but there is plenty of overlap for California. | Student Background;Teacher Activities;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 |
| Biology4kids | This site about cell structure is written for kids and has some good diagrams along with the written content. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| Bird Songs | Click on the pictures of the birds to hear Songs and calls of some New York State birds. Some of the birds (and their families) are also in California. Also has links to other bird song sites. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Background |
| Blue Whale Feeding - Science Friday | Video and science behind Blue Whales doing barrels rolls while diving for krill. | Student Videos |
| Bug Scope | The Bugscope project is an educational outreach program for K-12 classrooms. The project provides a resource to classrooms so that they may remotely operate a scanning electron microscope to image "bugs" at high magnification. The microscope is remotely controlled in real time from a classroom computer over the Internet using a web browser. The page also has many close up images of insects and descriptions. | Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| BugGuide.net | BugGuide.net is an online resource devoted to North American insects, spiders and their kin, offering identification, images, and information. | 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 |
| Children of the Earth | Activities, links, blogs on many issues of environmental education. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Comunidad Educativa de Castilla y Leon Water Cycle -site in Spanish | Click-through explanations of the the different Kingdoms of living things for students, as well as games and worksheets. Content is in Spanish. | Student Online Activities;Worksheets |
| Create Your Own Trace Fossil | Museum of Science lesson plan on creating your own trace "fossil" . | Teacher Activities |
| Ebird | Found a bird of a different feather? Keep track of your flighty sightings at this site for birders everywhere. You can also access data submitted by others across the country. Be a part of a nationwide effort to learn more about the habitats and habits of North American birds! | 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 |
| Frogland | This website about frogs is kind of wacky but has some good facts and some silly games for kids. There is a small "teachers corner" with some ideas for the classroom and links to other things | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Background |
| 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 |
| Japanese Rhinoceros Beetles - Science Friday | The horn of a Japanese rhinoceros beetle (Trypoxylus dichotomus) can grow to be two-thirds the length of the rest of its body. And size matters. The male beetles use their horns to battle over feeding sites, where they also get access to female beetles. The longer the horn, the more reproductive success. So what limits horn-size? And why do some beetles have big horns and others puny ones? Biologists Doug Emlen and Erin McCullough of The University of Montana are looking into it. | Student Videos |
| 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 |
| Life has a history | introduces students to the history of life and how it results in today’s biodiversity. | Student Online 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 |
| Nature Lab | Nature Lab is The Nature Conservancy's youth curriculum platform. Nature is the fantastic factory that makes the building blocks of all our lives—food, drinking water, the stuff we own, and the air we breathe. That’s why The Nature Conservancy and its 550 scientists have created Nature Lab: to help students learn the science behind how nature works for us and how we can help keep it running strong. | Student Background;Student Videos;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Oakland on the Move: The Ohlone | This site has background information on the Ohlone living in the Oakand Area. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| 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 |
| Ology - Biodiversity Everything Counts | Take a look at what common items are made from, the biodivesity of life in the city and the rainforest. | Student Background;Student Online Activities |
| Ology - Marine Biology | Explore many aspects of marine biology with this site from the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Many on-line games and student content. | Student Background;Student Online Activities |
| Ology - Paleontology: The Big Dig | Join the Ologists at the american Museum of Natural History as the ask and answer some questions about paleontology. | Student Background;Student Online Activities |
| Ology: A Website for Kids from the American Museum of Natural History | Join the Ologists at the american Museum of Natural History as the ask and answer some questions about paleontology. | Student Background;Student Online Activities |
| Operation RubyThroat, the hummingbird project | This online project provides background information and teacher activities. The Ruby-throated hummingbird does not breed regularly or migrate in California, but the lessons can provide an introduction to local species, like butterflies. | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| 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 |
| Penguins - Scientific Informaton | From the education department of Sea World, this site contains detailed scientific background but is very accessible to non-scientists. | Teacher Background |
| Pete & Barb's Penguin Pages | This page provides a large range of background information on all types of penguins. | Student Background;Teacher Background |
| Plants and Animals: Partners in Pollination | These lessons are adapted from Smithsonian in Your Classroom. Ultimately, all life on Earth depends on plants to provide food, shelter, and oxygen for other living things. Consequently, plant reproduction is crucial to all other life on this planet. The first step in plant reproduction is the intricate process called pollination, which occurs when pollen grains, the male germ cell of a plant, reach the stigma, the female reproductive part of the same species of plant. Depending on the plant species, a flower can produce male, female, or both structures. Pollination can also occur within the same flower. | Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Project Feeder Watch | FeederWatch helps scientists track broad scale movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance. Groups put up a feeder, count the birds that visit, and send their data to scientists. | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Background |
| 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 |
| San Francisco Bay Lesson Guides | These guides provide a valuable resource for teaching about the San Francisco Bay and its watershed in your classroom. Discover new ideas for teaching students about everything from salmon to climate change to the Farallon Islands. Each guide contains multiple lesson plans focused on local animals and ecosystems and is aligned to state standards, including the Common Core and the Next Generation Science Standards.With twelve guides spanning multiple grade levels and a variety topics, you can be sure to find lesson ideas to support your classroom curriculum. | Teacher Activities |
| 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 for Kids - Geography | The Geography page on Science for Kids has games, experiments, images, videos, facts, lessons and activities on subjects such as weather, volcanoes, earthquakes, rocks, fossils For videos go to http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/videos/earth.html | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Student Videos;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background;Teacher 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 |
| Seeing through Camouflage | from NOVA online. Because of their coloring, many animals blend seamlessly into their environment, making it difficult for predators to see them. This strategy is called camouflage, and helps many animals avoid being eaten. There are four basic types of camouflage. Play this Shockwave game and see if you can tell them apart. | Student Online Activities |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Talk About Trees | You will find seven complete lesson plans with objectives, skill area, vocabulary, and focus items. The curriculum is designed for grades 4-6, but is easily adaptable for other grade levels. Each lesson includes activities, many of which can be found in the "interactive games" and "forest activities" sections of the web page. Feel free to print the lesson plans and activities to use in your classrooms. Other parts of the website are geared towards student learning. | Student Background;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 |
| The Shape of LIfe | The Shape of Life: the story of the animail kingdom is a collection of videos formatted for use in schools that shows the process of scientific discovery into the evolution of animals on earth. From their website: * Stunning animations explain the intricate inner workings of animals’ bodies, demonstrating how form and function are complementary. * Never before filmed animal behaviors show animals hunting and feeding in their natural habitats. * Scientists are shown at work, as they study paleontology, genetics and ecology, pursuing their passion for the animals they study. From sponges, to worms, to humans, each phylum is presented, showing the exquisite design of its body plan and the evolutionary developments that lead to today’s astonishing diversity. * Other topics present exciting new developments in genetics, paleontology, and engineering. All these videos align with the National Science content standards for grades 5-9 and California 7th grade science standards. | Student Background;Student Videos;Teacher Background |
| UC Museum of Paleontology | Good resource for finding more information on fossils and the geological time frames. | Teacher Background |
| USGS - Patuxent--Tools for Learning About Birds | This is a great site about birds. It has photos, songs, life histories, seasonal bird maps and a bird quiz | Student Background;Student Online Activities;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 |
| White Glue Fossils | Lesson plan on creating your own while glue "fossil" . | Teacher Activities |
| Wyland Ocean Challenge | An interdisciplinary art-science curriculum promoting conservation and stewardship through understanding adaptation and water cycle concepts. Downloadable activities and other interesting background information. Lesson resources are found in the right hand column of the main page. | Student Background;Teacher Activities;Teacher Background |
| Zoom Dinosaurs | Resources, activities, and background information on dinosaurs. Read about famous paleontologists and learn how to become one! Read dino fact sheets and find out when and where a particular species lived, how big it was and what it ate. Print out line illustrations to color, or learn how to make paper finger puppets. Lots of dinosaur activities here! | Student Background;Student Online Activities;Teacher Activities |