Living things and their habitats
Kindergarten · Science
Look closely, sort your discoveries and ask why things happen.
Choose a game
Take your time, try a game and collect stars.
Animal or plant?
Is a ladybug an animal or a plant? Sort things you find outside in this
Play Animal or plant?
Learning about living things and their habitats
These Kindergarten Science games practice Animal or plant?. Choose a game above for a short activity, or explore the examples below before you play. The full guide for each game explains its controls, gives more examples and includes a free printable for practice away from the screen.
Talk it through
Start with something you can observe. Ask your child to describe the evidence for a choice, then compare a second example. A game practices vocabulary and reasoning; practical observation and investigation matter too.
Ask: “What clue helped you decide?” Give your child time to explain. Return to an example after playing and ask whether they would approach it differently.
Animal or plant?
Animals move, eat and grow in ways that plants do not. A ladybug is an animal. A tree is a plant.
Try an example: 🐌 snail
A snail moves slowly and eats leaves.
Show the answer
Animal
What to look out for
Thinking only big things are animals Insects, snails and worms are animals too.
Practice away from the screen
- Go on a walk and sort what you see into animals and plants.
Curriculum connections
Animal or plant?
Suggested Kindergarten practice, selected by skill and reading demand. US states and schools teach these topics in different grades; this is not a state-standards alignment claim.
Next Generation Science Standards teaching connection: LS1: plants and animals. Naming animals and plants prepares learners to talk about living things they can observe outside. Extend the game by looking at a real leaf or insect and describing one feature. This is a teaching connection to the NGSS approach, not a claim that the game meets a performance expectation. Read the framework.
Questions families ask
Where should we start with living things and their habitats?
Start with Animal or plant?. Look at the worked example together, then try a round. If the task feels unfamiliar, use the full game guide or its free printable before trying again.
Does this cover everything taught at this level?
No. These games provide focused practice. Grade suggestions do not replace your school’s curriculum, and any Common Core connection applies only to the skill described.