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Three Rock Pools is a free printable Grade 3 science worksheet on using rock-pool counts to argue which sea creatures survive well where, aligned to NGSS performance expectation 3-LS4-3. It prints 7 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two students in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 20 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Three Rock Pools

3-LS4-3

NameDate

Read the record, then answer the questions.

1.Read the record, then answer the questions.

Three Rock Pools

Counts the class made in three rock pools at low tide: one high on the shore, one in the middle and one near the sea. WHAT WE COUNTED High pool (out of the sea for most of the day): 30 barnacles, 6 limpets, some green seaweed, no starfish, no kelp Middle pool: 12 limpets, 9 sea anemones, 4 crabs, brown seaweed, no kelp Low pool (covered by the sea for all but an hour a day): 5 starfish, 11 sea anemones, 6 crabs, kelp, 3 small fish The high pool's water was the warmest, and its level dropped most in the sun. We counted for ten minutes at each pool.

  1. 1. What does this survey not tell you?
  2. 2. Why count for ten minutes at each pool?
  3. 3. Which pool had the most kinds of living thing?
  4. 4. What claim does this survey support?
2.Why do some animals in the deep sea have no working eyes?
  • A.They are always asleep
  • B.There is no light to see by down there
  • C.The water is too salty for eyes
3.How can a seal live in icy seas?
  • A.It lives on land all year
  • B.It never gets wet
  • C.A thick layer of fat under its skin keeps it warm
4.Why can mussels and barnacles live where the waves crash?
  • A.Waves cannot reach them
  • B.They are fixed tight to the rocks, and the waves bring them food
  • C.They swim away from every wave
5.Why do so many kinds of fish live on coral reefs?
  • A.Reefs are cold and dark
  • B.Fish cannot live anywhere else
  • C.The reef gives them food and places to hide
6.A crab from a rock pool is left on dry sand in the hot sun. What will happen?
  • A.It will be fine all day
  • B.It will survive less well, or not at all, unless it gets back to water
  • C.It will grow faster
7.Why are there no coral reefs in polar seas?
  • A.Reef coral needs warm water to survive
  • B.Polar seas are too salty for fish
  • C.Polar bears eat the coral

LessonPrint · 3-LS4-3 · Set 20 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Three Rock Pools

Set 20. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. It does not tell you what lives in the pools at high tide. 2. So each pool was searched for the same time and the counts can be compared. 3. The low pool, near the sea. 4. Some sea creatures survive well high on the shore, and others only in the pool near the sea.
  2. 2.There is no light to see by down there
  3. 3.A thick layer of fat under its skin keeps it warm
  4. 4.They are fixed tight to the rocks, and the waves bring them food
  5. 5.The reef gives them food and places to hide
  6. 6.It will survive less well, or not at all, unless it gets back to water
  7. 7.Reef coral needs warm water to survive

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to 3-LS4-3 of the Next Generation Science Standards.