Grade 5 Classroom activity
Quail Hollow Marsh: A Grade 5 Wetland Filter Relay
A grade 5 movement activity where students carry nutrient beads through a model wetland's zones, acting out how a marsh filters water before a lake.
NGSS · Grade 5
5-LS2-1 Model the movement of matter through an ecosystem
Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
Clarification statement: Emphasis is on the idea that matter that is not food (air, water, decomposed materials in soil) is changed by plants into matter that is food.
Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include molecular explanations.
Why water teaches this standard well
Water is named in the clarification as one of the non-food inputs that cycles through an ecosystem, so a pond or stream model shows matter moving through water as well as through organisms. It sets up later study of how wetlands and healthy streams recycle nutrients and keep water clean.
Materials tagged with this code are written to the full standard , including its clarification statement and assessment boundary, and each carries a written note explaining the alignment. See how we review materials.
3 materials aligned to 5-LS2-1
Classroom activities
Reading passages
Grade 5 Reading passage
The Cleanup Crew at Kemsley: Microbes That Eat Waste
A grade 5 informational passage about an operator who keeps trillions of microbes fed and full of air at a fictional water reclamation plant, with six questions.
Projects
Grade 5 Project
Magnifier Panels for the Merriwick Treatment Wetland Boardwalk
A five-session grade 5 art project in which teams design three boardwalk panels that use zoom circles and a color key to show wetland bacteria cleaning water.