K-ESS2-2: How Living Things Change Their Surroundings
Also called NGSS K-ESS2-2 · Topic: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems: Animals, Plants, and Their Environment · Earth and Space Science
The Official Wording
Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs.
Clarification statement: Examples of plants and animals changing their environment could include a squirrel digs in the ground to hide its food and tree roots can break concrete.
NGSS Lead States, 2013 · Read it on nextgenscience.org · checked October 15, 2026
What K-ESS2-2 Means in Plain English
Kindergartners make a claim about how a plant, an animal or a person changes its surroundings to get what it needs, then back it up with things they have seen. A squirrel digs holes to hide nuts, and tree roots can crack a sidewalk.
Evidence at this age is what children can see, touch or photograph, not measurements. It builds on K-LS1-1, which asks what living things need, and leads to K-ESS3-3, where children think about how people can do less harm to the land.
K-ESS2-2 I Can Statements
- I can tell how an animal changes a place to meet its needs.
- I can tell how a plant can change the ground around it.
- I can give a reason and show what I saw.
K-ESS2-2 Worked Example
An evidence walk a class can take around the schoolyard with clipboards and a camera.
What signs can we find that living things have changed our schoolyard?
Set It Up: A simple picture checklist and pencil for each child, and a tablet or camera for photos on a walk around the schoolyard.
- Walk quietly and look low, near the ground and along the sidewalk.An anthill of loose sand by a crack
- Look at the sidewalk next to a big tree.Concrete lifted and cracked over a root
- Look up into the branches and bushes.A robin's nest woven from twigs and grass
- Back in class, sort the photos by who made each change.Ants, tree, bird
- Each child chooses one photo and says a claim with a because.“The tree cracked the sidewalk because its roots grew under it.”
Ants, a tree and birds had all changed the schoolyard, and each change met one of their needs.
Why it works: Living things change the places around them to get food, water or a safe home, like ants digging tunnels, roots reaching out for water and birds building nests for their eggs.
Common Mistakes with K-ESS2-2
A claim with no evidence
“Squirrels change things.”
Try this: Add a because and something you saw, like “Squirrels change the ground because I saw one dig a hole for an acorn.”
Forgetting plants can change things
“Plants just sit there.”
Try this: Look for roots lifting a sidewalk or weeds pushing through cracks. Plants change places slowly as they grow.
Leaving out the need
“The beaver cut down trees because it wanted to.”
Try this: Name the need the change meets. A beaver builds a dam and lodge for a safe home in the water.
Where K-ESS2-2 Fits
Practice K-ESS2-2
Quick Check
- How does a squirrel change the ground?
- A sidewalk near a big tree is cracked and bumpy. What could have done it?
- How do people change a place to meet their needs?