BFSU Enrichment
LESSON B-3

Plant and Animal Kingdoms

Every living thing is either a plant or an animal — a plant catches its energy straight from the sun, an animal has to eat — and every animal's dinner traces back to a plant.

Free enrichment to teach alongside Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding, Volume 1 by Dr. Bernard J. Nebel. It reproduces none of his text — you'll want the book to teach from it. Get the book on Amazon →
Developed by Jesse Genet · @jessegenet
Download the kit
⬇ Full packetEverything, print-ready ⬇ Kid sheets onlyWhat goes in the notebook ⬇ Teacher sheets onlyGuide · oration · supply list
Poster
Where Does It Get Its Food
Where Does It Get Its Food
download
The activities — hands-on experiment cards
The Burn Test
Card 1 · Adult runs · kids seated back

The Burn Test

Animal food is biological — it holds the sun's energy, saved up by a plant, so it burns. "Plant food" (fertilizer) is only Earth minerals with no energy of its own, so it won't. Fire tells the two apart.

⬇ This card
Pet Earthworm Care
Card 2 · Kids hands-on · starts a week early

Pet Earthworm Care

A worm has no leaves and cannot make its own food from light — so it must eat. And look what it eats: a plant. The proof is a wilted romaine leaf slowly vanishing, even down in the dark.

⬇ This card
One more idea — a bonus for the review
Every dinner traced backwards to a plant catching sunlight
🎁 Reveal at the review

Trace It Back to the Sun

Pick ANY animal's dinner and walk it backwards — it always ends at a plant, and the plant's energy came from the sun. Even a hot dog traces back to grass.

A peek ahead → food chains, and how energy flows one way — a lesson coming soon (B-5).
⬇ Bonus card
The song
🎵
Two Kingdoms, One Sun
B-3's sing-along — press play
⬇ Lyric sheet
In the student binder
📖OverviewTwo great kingdoms — and both run on the sun. The big idea, for the notebook.⬇ ✎CopyworkSee it, trace it, write it — plant, animal, energy, in big primer handwriting.⬇ 🗂️Plant or Animal?Two clues decide every one — a leaf, or a mouth. Sort each living thing and circle the clue.⬇
Everything that's included