Identify ways plants or animals change their environment. |...

SECTION 1

People Have Always Noticed Nature Changing

Have you ever seen a bird build a nest? People have watched plants and animals change the world for a very long time!

Let's see how people learned about this. Here is a story of what they found out.

🌳 Our Anchoring Phenomenon

Imagine you see a big beaver dam blocking a stream. The water made a new pond! A beaver, that means a furry animal with big flat teeth, chewed down trees and piled them up. Now the whole place looks different. How did one animal change so much?

Long Ago

First Farmers Noticed

People saw that plant roots hold dirt in place. They planted seeds to keep soil from washing away.

1800s

Scientists Watched Animals

Scientists, that means people who study nature, saw how beavers build dams and change rivers.

1900s

Studying Worms

A famous scientist named Charles Darwin wrote a whole book about how worms change the soil by digging tunnels!

Today

We Keep Learning

Today, scientists and kids like you still watch how living things change the places where they live.

So here is our big question: How do plants and animals change the places where they live? Let's find out together!

SECTION 2

Big Ideas About Living Things and Their Environment

An environment, that means the place where something lives. It has water, air, dirt, and rocks. Plants and animals can change their environment in many ways!

Animals Build Things

Birds build nests in trees. Beavers build dams in streams. These change the land and water around them.

Animals Dig and Move Dirt

Worms dig tunnels in soil. Rabbits dig holes called burrows. They move the dirt around!

Plants Change the Land

Tree roots grow into the ground. They hold the soil in place. Big roots can even crack rocks!

Plants Change the Air

Plants give us fresh air to breathe. They take in air we breathe out and turn it into clean air.

✦ KEY TAKEAWAY

Think about your bedroom. When you play, you move toys around. You change your room! Plants and animals do the same thing outside. They change the place where they live just by doing what they do every day.

SECTION 3

See How a Beaver Changes Its Environment

Let's look at our beaver picture. See how the beaver changed the stream into a pond!

On the left you see the stream before the beaver came. On the right, the beaver chewed a tree and built a dam. Now there is a whole new pond!

The beaver did not use tools. It used its big teeth! It chewed trees and piled sticks. That changed the environment by making a new pond where fish and frogs can live.

SECTION 4

How Do Plants and Animals Change Their Environment?

Plants and animals change things around them in different ways. Let's think about what they do!

What Animals Do

Build — Birds build nests. Beavers build dams.
Dig — Worms dig tunnels. Rabbits dig holes.
Eat — Caterpillars eat leaves. Deer eat grass.
Move things — Squirrels bury acorns. Those acorns can grow into new trees!

What Plants Do

Roots hold soil — Roots grab the dirt so it does not wash away.
Roots crack rocks — Big roots push into rocks and break them.
Shade the ground — Big leaves block the sun and keep the ground cool.
Make fresh air — Plants make the air cleaner for us to breathe.

🤔 THINK ABOUT IT

Think about eating lunch. You change the table! There are crumbs and maybe a spill. You did not try to change the table. It just happened because you ate. Animals and plants are the same way. They change their environment just by living!

SECTION 5

Many Ways Living Things Change the Land

Let's look at even more examples. This picture shows different ways that plants and animals change the world around them.

This picture shows four ways living things change their environment: tree roots crack rocks, worms dig tunnels, birds build nests, and squirrels plant new trees by burying acorns.

Wow! Plants and animals change land, water, air, and soil. They do this every single day. These are all things you can see if you look carefully outside!

SECTION 6

Let's Be Scientists! Observing a Garden

Scientists ask questions and look carefully. That is called observing, that means looking very closely at something. Let's observe a garden together!

Observing How Ants Change a Garden

Step 1 — Look CloselyWe see a garden with dirt, flowers, and ants. The ants are making little hills of dirt. These are called ant hills.

Step 2 — Ask a QuestionWe ask: How are the ants changing the garden?

Step 3 — Describe What We SeeThe ants are digging tunnels under the ground. They push dirt up to make little hills. The dirt around the ant hill looks loose and soft.

The ants are changing the soil by digging and moving dirt!

Step 4 — Share What We LearnedWe can tell our friends: ants change the garden by making tunnels and moving dirt around. They make the soil softer. This can help plant roots grow!

Ants change their environment by digging and moving soil.

🔍 Try It Yourself!

Go outside or look out a window. Can you find a way that a plant or animal has changed its environment? Tell a grown-up what you see!

SECTION 7

Plants vs. Animals — Who Changes What?

Both plants and animals change the environment. But they do it in different ways! Let's compare them.

Comparing how plants and animals change their environment

What changes?	Plants do this	Animals do this
Soil	Roots hold soil in place	Worms and ants dig and move soil
Water	Roots soak up water from the ground	Beavers build dams and make ponds
Rocks	Roots can crack rocks open	Animals do not usually change rocks
Air	Plants make fresh air for us	Animals breathe in air and breathe out used air
Other plants	Big trees shade small plants	Animals eat plants and spread seeds

✦ KEY TAKEAWAY

Plants and animals both change the world, but in their own ways. Plants grow and stay in one spot. Animals move around and build things. Together they shape the environment every day!

SECTION 8

People Change the Environment Too!

Guess what? People are living things too! We change our environment just like plants and animals do.

Animals and plants compared to people

Animals or Plants	People
Beavers build dams	People build houses and roads
Birds build nests from sticks	People build with wood and bricks
Trees give us clean air	People plant gardens and trees
Worms dig in the dirt	People dig to plant seeds

As you grow bigger, you will learn more about how people can help take care of the environment. We can plant trees, keep water clean, and help animals. That is an important job for all of us!

🔗 Crosscutting Concept: Cause and Effect

When a living thing does something, that means there is a cause. What happens next is the effect. A beaver chews a tree (cause). A pond forms (effect). You can find cause and effect everywhere in nature!

SECTION 9

Practice Time! Let's Check What We Learned

Great job learning! Now let's try some questions. Think about a playground with a big oak tree, some grass, squirrels, and robins.

PROBLEM 1 — CONCEPTUAL

The oak tree's big roots are growing into the sidewalk and making it crack. Is the tree changing its environment? A) Yes, the tree's roots are changing the sidewalk. B) No, trees cannot change anything. C) No, only animals change things.

PROBLEM 2 — BASIC OBSERVATION

A robin picks up little twigs and grass from the playground. She flies up to a tree branch. What is the robin doing to change the environment? A) She is making the air dirty. B) She is building a nest in the tree. C) She is planting a new tree.

PROBLEM 3 — INTERMEDIATE

After a big rain, the playground is muddy. But under the big oak tree, the ground is not as muddy. Why? A) The tree's roots hold the soil in place. B) The tree ate all the rain. C) Someone put a roof under the tree.

PROBLEM 4 — APPLIED

A squirrel at the playground buries an acorn in the grass and forgets about it. What might happen over a long time? A) The acorn will stay the same forever. B) The acorn might grow into a new oak tree. C) The acorn will turn into a squirrel.

PROBLEM 5 — THINK AND SHARE

Look around your home or school. Can you find one way a plant or animal has changed the environment? Tell a friend or grown-up about what you see. Describe the cause and the effect!

SUMMARY

What We Learned Today

Today we learned that plants and animals change their environment every day. Animals like beavers build dams, birds build nests, and worms dig tunnels in soil. Plants use their roots to hold soil and crack rocks. Plants also make fresh air for us to breathe.

We learned to observe like scientists by looking carefully and asking questions. We saw that every change has a cause and an effect. Living things change the land, water, air, and soil just by doing what they do. Now you can go outside and find examples all on your own! You are a great scientist!