Unit Plan 29 (Grade 2 Science): Habitat Changes Over Time
Grade 2 science unit explores how fast and slow Earth events change habitats and affect plants and animals using observations, models, and real examples.
Focus: Describe and model how Earth events (fast and slow, natural and human-caused) change local habitats and affect the plants and animals that live there, using observations and information from several sources.
Grade Level: 2
Subject Area: Science (Earth’s History • Life Science • Habitats)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 30–45 minutes per session
I. Introduction
In this unit, students explore how habitats change over time and what that means for the plants and animals that live there. They learn that Earth events like floods, fires, landslides, storms, and slow changes such as erosion, plant growth, and human building can make habitats better or worse for different organisms.
Students use pictures, short texts, and local observations to see how diversity of life (many different kinds of plants and animals) can change when a habitat changes. By the end, they create a Habitat Time-Change Model showing a habitat before, during, and after an Earth event, and describe how the living things are affected.
Essential Questions
- How can Earth events change a habitat quickly or slowly over time?
- How do changes in land (like floods, fires, erosion, or building) affect the plants and animals that live there?
- What does it mean for a habitat to have a lot of diversity, and why does that matter for survival?
- How can we use observations and information from different sources to tell how a habitat has changed?
- How can a model help us explain how a habitat and its living things change over time?
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:
- Use information from pictures, simple texts, and teacher-read sources to describe how Earth events (like floods, fires, erosion, storms) can be fast or slow and change habitats (2-ESS1-1).
- Make observations of plants and animals in at least one local habitat (schoolyard, garden, field) to describe the diversity of life there (2-LS4-1).
- Compare two sets of observations or pictures (e.g., “before and after” or “two different habitats”) to describe how diversity is similar or different.
- Explain at least one example of how an Earth event or human action changed a local or pictured habitat and what happened to some of the plants and animals.
- Create and explain a Habitat Changes Over Time Model showing before, during, and after an event, and describe how the living things changed.
Standards Alignment — 2nd Grade (NGSS-Aligned)
- 2-ESS1-1 — Use information from several sources to provide evidence that Earth events can occur quickly or slowly.
- Example: Compare pictures and texts about a flood (fast) and river erosion or forest growth (slow) and describe how each changes the land and habitat.
- 2-LS4-1 — Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
- Example: Observe the schoolyard and compare it to photos of a pond, forest, or desert to see differences in kinds of living things.
Success Criteria — Student Language
- I can tell the difference between a fast Earth event and a slow Earth event, and give one example of each.
- I can observe and list the plants and animals I see in a local habitat.
- I can say how the diversity of life (how many different kinds of living things) is similar or different in two habitats.
- I can explain how a habitat changed over time and how that change helped some living things and hurt others.
- I can show and explain a model of a habitat before, during, and after an event, using words like habitat, diversity, and change.