K to 2 · ages 5 to 8
Who visits the milkweed?
A structured look at a single plant. Children count and sort what they find, and discover that one kind of plant can be home to a dozen kinds of animal.
What students will be able to do
- Observe a single plant closely for a sustained period.
- Sort animals by simple observable features: how many legs, wings or no wings, colors.
- Understand that different animals want different things from the same plant.
Materials
- A milkweed plant or patch, in a garden, a verge or a planter
- Hand lenses, one between two
- A clipboard and tally sheet each
- A white sheet or tray to hold under a stem
How it runs
- Before going out, agree the rule: we look, we do not pick, and we do not touch the plant with bare hands.
- Give each pair one stem to be responsible for. Ownership makes children look properly.
- Five silent minutes first. Nobody says anything, everybody just watches. It changes what they see.
- Tally what is found: on the flowers, on the leaves, under the leaves, on the stem, and flying past.
- Sort the finds as a class: legs or no legs, wings or no wings, eating the leaves or drinking from the flowers.
- Look for a monarch egg on the underside of a young leaf. It is the size of a pinhead, pale and ribbed, and finding one is the highlight of the year.
Discussion questions
- Which animals were eating the leaves, and which were drinking from the flowers? Why is that a difference worth noticing?
- Lots of the insects on milkweed are orange and black. Why might so many different animals wear the same colors?
- What would happen to these animals if somebody mowed this plant?
Taking it further
Repeat the same count on the same plant once a month. The change from June to September tells a story no single visit can.
NGSS alignment
| Code | Performance expectation |
|---|---|
| K-ESS3-1 | Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals and the places they live. |
| 2-LS4-1 | Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats. |
Cite this page
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APA
Milkweed USA. (2026). Who visits the milkweed? (lesson plan). Retrieved DATE, from https://milkweedusa.com/learn/sorting-living-things/
MLA
"Who visits the milkweed? (lesson plan)." Milkweed USA, 2026, https://milkweedusa.com/learn/sorting-living-things/. Accessed DATE.
Chicago
Milkweed USA. "Who visits the milkweed? (lesson plan)." Last modified 2026-08-01. Accessed DATE. https://milkweedusa.com/learn/sorting-living-things/.
BibTeX
@misc{milkweedusa_learnsortinglivingthings,
title = {Who visits the milkweed? (lesson plan)},
author = {{Milkweed USA}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://milkweedusa.com/learn/sorting-living-things/},
note = {Accessed DATE}
}