Day One: What is a Living Thing?
Our world is full of items that are living and non-living. In this lesson students will investigate the characteristics that let us determine if something is living or non-living.
Step One: Engage Your Student
- Show your child two items, one that is living, and one that is non-living. These can be real items in your home or photos. For example, below is a photo of a kitten and a rock for comparison.
- With your child make a list of the ways that they are similar and ways that they are different. You are looking to point out four major characteristics that makes something living.
- Living things need energy. (The kitten needs food, but the rock does not)
- Living things can grow and change. (The kitten will grow bigger, but the rock will not)
- Living things reproduce. (Cats can have babies, the rock cannot have babies)
- Living things react to things in their environment. (If you spray the cat with water it will likely run away, the rock will not)
Step Two: Clarify Information and Practise
- Below is a great video to share with your child to summarize what they have explored about living and non-living things.
- In the final section of the video, items are presented for the student to guess if they are living or non-living. For the best learning experience pause the video in between these items and let your child talk about why they think each item is living or non-living.
- *Be on the look out for evidence of learning by seeing if your child can accurately define items as living or non-living at the end of the video.*