What Living Things Need
Understand what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive: water, food, air, and suitable conditions
Lesson
Set out your lesson
“What Living Things Need means naming water, food, air, and suitable conditions as needs for plants and animals including humans. We will practise once together, then check a fresh example.”
Bring to the table
- Need cards: water, food, air, suitable conditions
- Plant and animal pictures
Extra for the adult
Worked example. Living things need water, food, air, and suitable conditions. Plants, animals, and humans all need them.
Optional challenge. For What Living Things Need, name all four needs.
What to notice. Keep one parent note: needs matched; support used. This session samples survival needs, not mastery of biology.
Share and support
Compare teaching approaches
Teaching approaches
Gakuva’s recommended starting approach is selected. You can still compare every option.
2 approaches
What Living Things Need means naming water, food, air, and suitable conditions as needs for plants and animals including humans. We will practise once together, then check a fresh example.
Spend about 12 minutes matching needs to plant/animal/human, then checking one fresh need.
Compare the needs of animals and green plants without depriving a living thing.
Compare the needs of animals and green plants without depriving a living thing.
Family records and proof options
Keep a record of your learning
Save photos, notes, and attendance. Export a proof packet for compliance or portfolio reviews.
Practice this concept
Start practiceWhat Living Things Need practice
Choose survival needs for living things.
Free · no login · no ads · Practice answers and completion are not saved. Parent observation remains the lesson record.
Learning resources
Extra practice links — they do not replace Gakuva’s teaching approach.
NASA Climate Kids · Practice link — not the full lesson
Plants and Animals
Before you open · source notes
Plants and Animals supports What Living Things Need. An adult previews and guides; this is a learning page, not a scored quiz.
Free educational page, no sign-in required for the tested path.
Before you openAsk the learner one fact they learned and one question they still have.
Opening this link does not save learning or assess mastery.
Source, access and review notes
Public NASA Climate Kids page. An anonymous GET on 2026-11-12 returned HTTP 200 with no login or payment prompt for this URL. Opening the link does not save practice or assess mastery. An adult should preview and guide the learner.
NASA Climate Kids. “Plants and Animals.” External page; Gakuva does not copy, host, embed, or redistribute materials.
Unknown — link only
Check understanding
- List the basic needs of animals: water, food, air, shelter
- List the basic needs of plants: water, light, air, suitable temperature
- Explain what happens if one basic need is missing (e.g. 'the plant wilts without water')
“If you ask your child what a pet dog or a garden plant needs to stay alive, can they list the basic things like water, food, and air?”
Curriculum record
- Type
- Conceptual
- Subject
- Science
- Domain
- Organisms & Life Processes
- Age range
- Ages 5–8
Standards