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Strand B: Problem Solving and Innovating · Wonder, Explore, Build and Create

Looking Closely at Living Things

B13.2 B12.2 B12.6About 20 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can tell if something is living or non-living.
  • I can sort living and non-living things in my own way.
  • I can look closely at a plant or animal and tell what I notice.
  • I can draw what I see and use pictures in a book to learn more.
  • I can wash my hands after touching soil, plants or animals.

Words to know

living
Alive. Living things grow, need food and water, need air, and make new living things like babies or seeds.
non-living
Not alive. It does not grow, eat, drink or breathe. A rock and a toy are non-living.
sort
To put things into groups that go together.
insect
A small animal with 6 legs, like an ant, a bee or a ladybug.
magnifying glass
A special glass that makes small things look bigger.

Who is alive?

(Grown-up: read aloud.)

A puppy 🐶 is alive. A tree 🌳 is alive. You are alive!

A rock 🪨 is not alive. A toy car 🚗 is not alive.

How do we know? Let's be nature detectives! 🔍

Clues that something is living

Living things:

  • grow 📏 (a baby grows into a big person; a seed grows into a plant)
  • need food and water 💧
  • need air
  • make new living things like them (babies, eggs, or seeds)

Non-living things do not do these things. A rock never grows. A teddy bear never gets hungry.

A small green seedling with two leaves growing out of soil next to a grey rock.
The little plant is alive: it grows and needs water and air. The rock beside it is not alive. It never grows. AI-generated image
Living 🌱Non-living 🪨
🐶 dog🪨 rock
🌳 tree🚗 car
🐞 ladybug🧸 teddy bear
🌻 sunflower🥄 spoon
👧 girl✏️ pencil
Point to each picture and say "living" or "non-living" together.
Worked example

Let's sort these together

Put these in two groups, living and non-living: 🐟 fish, 🪨 rock, 🌷 tulip, 🧸 teddy bear, 🐦 bird.

  1. Look at the fish 🐟. Does it grow? Yes. Does it eat? Yes. It goes in the living group.
  2. Look at the rock 🪨. Does it grow or eat? No. It goes in the non-living group.
  3. The tulip 🌷 grows from a bulb and needs water and sun. Living.
  4. The teddy bear 🧸 looks like an animal, but it is made of cloth and stuffing. It does not eat or grow. Non-living.
  5. The bird 🐦 eats seeds and worms, grows, and lays eggs. Living.

Living: 🐟 🌷 🐦 Non-living: 🪨 🧸

Sort your own way

You can sort in your own way too! You could sort animals into "has legs" and "no legs", or "lives in water" and "lives on land". Just tell your grown-up your sorting rule.

Look closely at a plant

Most plants have roots, a stem, and leaves. Many have flowers. The roots hold the plant in the soil and drink up water. Plants need sunlight, water and air to grow.

flowerleafstemroots (under the soil)
The parts of a plant: flower, leaf, stem and roots.

Look closely at small animals

An ant 🐜, a bee 🐝 and a ladybug 🐞 are insects. All insects have 6 legs.

A spider 🕷️ is not an insect. A spider has 8 legs.

A magnifying glass 🔍 helps us see tiny legs, wings and patterns.

insect (ant)6 legs, 3 body partsspider8 legs, 2 body parts
Count the legs! An insect like an ant has 6 legs. A spider has 8 legs, so a spider is not an insect.

Pictures in books help us learn

📚 When we read an information book about animals, the pictures help us learn, even before we can read all the words. Look at a picture of a frog and ask: What colour is it? Where does it live? What is it doing?

Stay safe and be kind to nature

🧼 After you touch soil, plants, worms or pets, wash your hands with soap and water.

🐛 Be gentle with small creatures. Look, then put them back where you found them.

🍄 Never eat or touch a plant, berry or mushroom you find outside unless a grown-up says it is safe.

Hands-on activity

Nature detective hunt

You need: a magnifying glass if you have one, paper, crayons, and an egg carton or small box.

  1. Go outside with your grown-up (a backyard, park or balcony plant is fine).
  2. Find 3 living things (like grass, a tree, an ant, a bird). Look very closely. What colour? How many legs? How does it move?
  3. Find 3 non-living things (like a stone, a stick from a fence, a bottle cap). You can collect the non-living ones in your egg carton.
  4. At home, draw one living thing you saw. Your grown-up helps you write its name under the picture. This is your nature journal.
  5. Wash your hands! 🧼

Talk about it: "How did you know it was living?"

What if?

If a spider wore shoes, it would need 8 of them. That's a lot of shoelaces to tie before going outside! 🕷️👟

Your turn

1

🐶 Is a dog living or non-living? How do you know?

2

🪨 Is a rock living or non-living?

3

🐜 An ant is an insect. Insects have 6 legs. Hold up 6 fingers.

4

What does a plant need to grow? Point: ☀️ sun, 💧 water, 🍕 pizza

5

Name one part of a plant.

6

You touched worms in the garden. 🪱 What should you do next?

7

Sort these into living and non-living: 🐝 🚲 🌲 ⚽

More practice: warm-up

1

🐱 Living or non-living?

2

🚗 Living or non-living?

3

🌻 Living or non-living?

4

🧸 Living or non-living?

5

Who needs to drink water: 🐕 or 🪑?

More practice: on your own

1

🧸 A teddy bear has eyes and fur. Is it living?

2

Which one is a baby of a living thing: 🐣 or 🎈?

3

Tell one way a bird 🐦 and a fish 🐟 are different.

4

Tell one way a tree 🌳 and a sunflower 🌻 are the same.

5

📚 Look at a picture of a frog in a book (or think of one). What can the picture tell you?

Challenge

1

🕷️ A spider has 8 legs. 🐜 An ant has 6 legs. Who has more legs? How many more?

2

🚗 A car moves and makes noise. Is it living?

3

🪴 A plant is put in a dark closet for a whole week with no light. Predict what will happen.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which one is living?

2.

What do plants need to grow?

3.

How many legs does an insect like an ant 🐜 have?

4.

Which one is non-living?

5.

You touched soil in the garden. What do you do next?

For parents and teachers

What this lesson is about. Children observe the natural world, sort living and non-living things in their own ways, and represent what they see through drawings and simple labels. It also touches on early reading (using pictures in information books) and hygiene.

How to help at home:

  • Go outside often and look at small things together: bugs under a log, buds on a branch, worms after rain. Ask "What do you notice?" rather than telling.
  • Accept your child's own sorting rules ("things that fly" and "things that don't"). Ask them to explain the rule.
  • Borrow a nonfiction animal or plant book from the library. Read the pictures together.
  • Write the label your child tells you under their drawing. Let them copy a letter or two if they want.

Common difficulties:

  • Children often think anything that moves is alive (cars, clouds, wind) and that plants are not alive because they don't move. Go back to the clues: grows, needs food or water, needs air, makes new living things.
  • Toys that look like animals (teddy bears, toy dinosaurs) confuse many children. Ask: "Does it eat? Does it grow?"
  • Things that were once alive (a fallen leaf, a wooden table) are tricky. At this age it is fine to say "It came from a living thing, but it is not growing anymore."
  • Supervise outdoor exploring. Teach your child not to touch or eat unknown plants, berries or mushrooms, and to wash hands afterwards.