My Pond Home is a two-page mind map for kindergarten science with The Pond at its center. Students fill four branches by writing or drawing: Who lives here?, What is growing?, What's on the menu?, and What else do they need? Each branch has two hint lines, such as animals with webbed feet or what hungry frogs eat. A fifth branch, My Own Pond Idea, lets students name their own. The map supports NGSS K-LS1-1 and K-ESS3-1.
K-LS1-1
“Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.”
What's on the menu? and What else do they need?, where students list the food, sunlight, and water that pond life needs.
K-ESS3-1
“Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants or animals (including humans) and the places they live.”
The whole map is a model of one place, with each branch linking the animals and plants to the pond that meets their needs.
Hints point to animals with webbed feet and to those that swim in the water or hop in the mud.
Students think about green things that need sunlight and plants that grow in the mud or float on top.
Two prompts ask what hungry frogs eat and what the little fish munch on to survive.
This branch covers the bright sun, water to drink, and mud to hide in.
Students name a branch of their own, such as who visits the pond for a drink or what the weather is like there.
Class map first
Read a pond picture book, then fill the branches together on chart paper. Students copy or draw from the class map.
After a pond visit
After a trip to a real pond, have students add what they saw to each branch. The My Own Pond Idea branch is the place for surprises.
Listen in
The sheet has no answer key, so listen as students talk about their maps. A student who links frogs to both water and mud has the idea.
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