Unit 0. Living non- living things.

Overview
In this lesson, students learn about the characteristics that distinguish animals as living
things. By examining video clips, presentations and still photographs of a variety of
animals, students gather evidence and develop criteria to recognize the characteristics of
animals as living things.

Objectives

Develop criteria to decide if animals are living and explain why.

Classify animals, based on those criteria.

Recognize what animals need to live.

Recognize that animals grow, reproduce, and need food, air, and water.

To recognise that there are different types of animals in a local environment.

To name some animals and understand that they require different habitats to live.

Describe an animal according to the items explained previously.

Grade Level: K-1, aged 6/7

This proyect is appropriate for students in elementary grade.

Suggested Time
December/January 2015.

Multimedia Resources

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/5_6/ourselves_fs.shtml sort and

label the living things
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgRtAhYpMM8 video about animals around
us.

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/games/animaldiet
game.htm game: what do they eat?

http://www.slideshare.net/rebemoysev/animalsarelivingthings ppt animals are

living.

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/animals/forest/animalforestgame.ht
m game: animals on the forest.

http://sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/animals/farm/animalfarmgame.htm
game: animals on the farm.

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/animals/ocean/animaloceanmovie.s
wf sea animals video

http://www.slideshare.net/rebemoysev/animals-have-got-11348870 ppt body

covering.

http://www.slideshare.net/rebemoysev/birds-2847933 birds ppt

Materials

Handout: Exploring the Characteristics of Living Things PDF Document

handout.
Flashcards and pictures about living and nonliving things.
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/paint/paintpage.ht
m page with printables for colouring.

Background Information
Young children often have difficulty characterizing things as living or nonliving. For
example, they tend to describe anything that moves as alive. They also do not yet
understand the cycle of life (birth, growth, death), and therefore classify as nonliving
anything that has died. In science, living is used to describe anything that is or has ever
been alive (dog, flower, seed, road kill, log); nonliving is used to describe anything that
is not now nor has ever been alive (rock, mountain, glass, wristwatch).

The Lesson
1. It's just a bunch of pictures--of both living and non-living things.
Show the pictures and ask the kids if each object is living or nonliving. Let them discuss their answers. The kids can pretty easily tell
you which ones are living and which are not, but there are a few tricky
ones (i.e. the rock and the tree). It's fun to listen to the reasoning
behind their answers--the debate can become quite heated at times!

2. Stop at the slide with the stop sign! Lead your students in a discussion with the
following questions:
How can you tell if something is living or non-living?
What are some things that all living things have in common?
Resist the urge to correct any misconceptions they have. Write down all of their
ideas on a big chart.

3. Play

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/6_7/plants_animals_e
nv_fs.shtml

4. Ask each student to name one living thing and one nonliving thing. Write all
their contributions on easel paper or on the chalkboard, under the column
headings "Living" and "Nonliving".
5. Tell students that they will be studying living things. Have students reflect on the
list they generated and think about all the features that make things "alive." Have
them brainstorm answers to these questions:

What are some characteristics of living things?

What are some characteristics of nonliving things?

What makes living things different from nonliving things?

If your students are not reading or writing yet, use pictures or symbols to
represent written text.
Working in pairs, have students view examples of living and nonliving things
from the Is It Alive? video and the Living and Nonliving stills collage. Have them
classify each example as living or nonliving and record the name of the object or
organism under the appropriate heading on the handout. Then have students indicate
which characteristics of life each example exhibits by putting a check in the appropriate
column. (For very young children, you can explore examples of living and nonliving
things by displaying the stills on a large screen. To simplify the task of recording their
observations, young students can draw pictures or use symbols to represent the things
they examine.)
You might want to choose one example and model the process of scientific
inquiry for students. Ask questions (Does this example reproduce? Does it
grow?), make observations (The river is definitely moving.), and carefully
record the results. Point out the importance of thinking like a scientist.

As students explore the examples, they may discover other characteristics of life
they hadn't thought of earlier. Encourage them to add these characteristics to the
chart.
6. Have students reflect on their findings by discussing the following questions:

What characteristics did ALL of the living things have in common?

Did any nonliving things possess some of the same characteristics as living
things? Which ones?

How were the living things different from the nonliving things?

Assess students' understanding (and identify possible misconceptions) by asking and

letting them myming:

Are all things that move "alive"? Have them defend their opinions by referring
to the results of their explorations.
What kinds of nonliving things move?
Again, show them the clip of the moving cars, the running river, or the dripping
icicle in the Is It Alive? video and ask:

How is the movement of living things different from the movement of nonliving
things?

Next, ask:

Do all living things move?

If students say yes or are unsure, again show them the picture of the grass or plant or the
clip of the coral. Then show them the video Animals on the Go and ask:

What kinds of living things move? What kinds don't move?

Do plants move?

Why do living things move?

7. . Show students the What Do Animals Eat? video. Ask:

Do all living things eat?

Plants don't eat but they need energy. Where do they get it?

8. . Anticipate questions about growth. For example, icicles "grow," yet they aren't
alive. Explain that all living things grow some time in their lives, but that some
nonliving things seem to get bigger too. For this reason, growth cannot by itself
be used to classify something as living.
9. . End the lesson by asking students whether they want to make any changes to
the original list they made of the characteristics of living things.

10. Listen and the sing the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=Z_aAkuK_8nQ

11. Now, choose an object that all of the kids can agree is absolutely,

without a doubt, living--like a puppy! Go through each of the ideas on

the chart. If it is true for the puppy, put a check. If it is not true, cross
it out:
It has a face. Check! It grows. Check! It can move. Check! It talks. No!
Cross it out. Now we know this is not true for all living things. It has a
heart. Check! They have ears. Check! They have hands.
Debatable...depends on whether or not your definition of hands
includes paws!

Now choose another living thing, but this time, choose an object you know will get a
few more misconceptions crossed off that list. Butterfly got They have ears crossed off.
A sunflower got It has a face and It has a heart crossed off. Keep going until you have
all of the misconceptions crossed off and you will have the beginnings of a list of what
all living things have in common.
Note: Your kids will most likely want to cross off It can move or It can breathe (or a
few others) for a plant or a tree. After all, they do not obviously move or breathe. So
you will probably have to have a quick discussion about how plants move and breathe at
this point.
Your class will probably not think of all the things living things have in common. You
can see we only had It grows and It can move. Finish the rest of the Is it Living
PowerPoint. Now you can add the other criteria to your list.
12. Time for some reading: Baby animals
As you read the books, make an anchor chart listing all of the things living things have
in common.
13. You can also have the kids do a living/non-living sort in their science journals;
Make a chart like the one pictured below with all of the characteristics of living
things across the top. Choose different objects and go through each of the
characteristics for each one. Then have the kids determine whether that object is
living or not.

We keep this chart up throughout the week and add to it whenever we have a few extra
minutes.
14. Finally, have the students pick one (or more) objects and answer the questions
on a recording sheet in their science journals. You can print pictures for them,
have them cut pictures from a magazine or draw pictures.

1. Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgRtAhYpMM8 . Ask each

group to record as many animals as possible.
2. Ask the children, in their table groups, to name as many differences
they can think of between plants and animals.
3. Ask the children to name as many similarities they can think of
between plants and animal.
4. Make an animal alphabet, in a card, each pupil draw an animal and
write its name, then, make a picture dictionary with it
5. Open the Bitesize plants and animals activity.

6. Explain to the children that they are going to spot some wildlife. Ask
the children to predict where an animal might be found. Ask them
why they might be found there.
7. Select a child to spot and click on the wildlife. Click on each
magnifying glass and read through the information. Explain any
unfamiliar words.
8. Ask the children if all living things begin life in the same way. Ask
them what a bird looked like at the beginning of its life. Complete the
activity.
9. Ask the children what different types of wildlife they found in the local
environment. List them on the whiteboard.
10.Make a project with the children to find out more about Spanish
animals in danger of extinction.
11.Ask the children to create a simple 'What am I?' quiz, giving as many
clues as possible about the plant or animal the child is thinking of (eg
where it lives, what its offspring are called, drawings of a part of its
body).
12.Ask the higher ability group to create a branching diagram to sort
animals.