This project will involve two pre-k classrooms, three First grades and three Fifth grade classrooms. The focus of the project will be on living things. All three grade levels will be observing and discussing similarities, differences, and categories of plants and animals. Students will identify things as living or non-living based on characteristics, such as breathes, moves by itself or grows. They will be able to explain why plants and animals need water and food. They will describe simple to the complex life cycles of plants and animals. Students will describe and identify the different structures of familiar plants and animals and will observe, record, and explain how plants and animals respond to change in the environment and changes in the seasons. The MOST and the Rosamond Gifford “Zoo To You” program will do presentations to different classrooms. Plants will be grown from seedlings in the classroom and then transplanted in the spring near the school building. In May the classrooms will also be observing caterpillars changing into butterflies. Funds from this grant will be used to purchase butterfly habitats, microscopes, learning materials, experiments, and planting supplies.