Plants and animals in their environment (life sciences)

Life Sciences
Standards
Preview
Standard Set 2. Life Sciences
2. Plants and animals have
predictable life cycles. As a basis for
understanding this concept:
2.a. Students know that organisms
reproduce offspring of their own kind
and that the offspring resemble their
parents and one another.

Genre

Nonfiction

Comprehension Skill

Use Text Features

2.c. Students know many
characteristics of an organism are
inherited from the parents. Some
characteristics are caused or influenced
by the environment.
2.d. Students know there is variation
among individuals of one kind within
a population.

Text Features

• Captions
• Labels
• Glossary

Science Content

Living Things in
Environments

Scott Foresman Science 2.3

ISBN 0-328-23500-8

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by Peggy Bresnick Kendler


Vocabulary
environment
inherit
offspring

Picture Credits
Every effort has been made to secure permission and provide appropriate credit for photographic material. The
publisher deeply regrets any omission and pledges to correct errors called to its attention in subsequent editions.
Unless otherwise acknowledged, all photographs are the copyright of Dorling Kindersley, a division of Pearson.
Photo locators denoted as follows:Top (T), Center (C), Bottom (B), Left (L), Right (R), Background (Bkgd).
2 (T) © Royalty-Free/Corbis, (B) Getty Images; 3 (BR) Jane Burton/DK Images; 4 (R) ©Robert Landau/Corbis, (L) Getty
Images; 5 Ed Reschke/DK Images; 7 (B) Getty Images; 8 (B) ©Michael Boys/Corbis; 9 (B) Clive Boursnell/DK Images;

10 (B) ©American Images Inc./Getty Images; 11 (B) Dave King/DK Images.

ISBN: 0-328-23500-8
Copyright © Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America.
This publication is protected by Copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 V010 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06

by Peggy Bresnick Kendler


How are plants
and animals like
their parents?
Living things have offspring.
Offspring are young plants and
animals.
Oak trees’ acorns make new oak trees.
The new tree can look like its parent.

Young Animals and Their Parents
Young animals often look like their
parents.
Offspring inherit things from their
parents.
Inherit means to get things from
parents.
How do these chicks look like their

parents?
These chicks look different
from each other.

2

3


Young Plants and Their Parents
Young plants also inherit things.
They can have their parents’ color.
They can have their parents’ shape.
This is a young saguaro cactus.
It is the same color as an adult cactus.
But it is not the same shape.
A saguaro cactus does not
grow arms until it is older.

4

These plants are foxgloves.
Adult foxgloves have many flowers.
Young foxgloves have no flowers.
Foxgloves grow flowers when they are
a year old.
Then they look like their parent plant.

A young foxglove does
not grow flowers until

it is older.

5


How does the
environment
affect plants and
animals?
Environments change how plants grow.
The environment is everything around
a living thing.
Air, sunlight, water, and soil are parts of
the environment.

6

Environments also change how animals
grow.
The way an animal looks can change.
A mule deer’s fur changes color in
winter.
Now the deer is harder to see.
This protects the deer from other
animals.
A mule deer

7

How are plants
different?
There are many kinds of plants.
Some plants have flowers.
Others do not have flowers.
Roses are plants with flowers.

Not all roses look the same.
Some have small flowers.
Others have large flowers.
Some have short stems.
Others have long stems.
But they are all roses!

These roses have pink
and red flowers.

This rose has
a long stem.

8

9


How are animals
different?
There are many kinds of animals.
A dog is one kind of animal.
There are many kinds of dogs.

The dogs in this family are terriers.

Not all terriers look the same.
Terriers come in different colors.
Some are very large.
Others are small.
Some terriers have long fur.
Others have short fur.
But they are all terriers!
Scottish terrier

How are these puppies
alike and different?

Airedale terrier

10

11


Glossary
environment everything around a living
thing like air, sunlight, water,
and soil
inherit

get some things from their
parents

offspring

young plants and animals

12

What did you learn?
1. Why do plants and animals look like their
parents?
2. Do all animals look exactly like their parents?
3.

You learned about one
kind of plant called a rose. Write a paragraph
describing how roses can be different. Then
write the paragraph again, giving more
details on a rose’s color, size, and shape.

4.

Use Text Features Go back to the
caption on page 4. How does it help explain
the pictures on that page?