What Is Living?
How to use: Download the PDF to print the worksheet. Then use this page to repeat activities and check answers.
Learning Objectives
- 1Tell the difference between living and nonliving things
- 2Explain what living things need to survive
Mini Lesson
Look around you — some things are alive and some are not. Living things do special things that nonliving things can never do.
Living things grow and change
- A seed grows into a plant. A puppy grows into a dog.
- Example: A flower grows taller every day.
- Nonliving things like rocks always stay the same size.
Living things need food, water, and air
- Animals eat food and drink water to stay alive.
- Plants use sunlight and water to make their own food.
Living things make more of their own kind
- Dogs have puppies. Trees drop seeds. Birds lay eggs.
- A rock or a chair can never make babies.
Nonliving things do not grow or breathe
- A pencil does not eat, breathe, or grow.
- Some things like wood were once living but are not anymore.
Ask yourself: Does it grow? Does it need food and water? Can it make babies? If yes — it is living!
Guided Practice
Sketch a living thing and a nonliving thing from your paper worksheet. Then use the Tracing Pad to practice the science words from this lesson.
Tip: If it grows and needs food and water — it is living!
Exercises
Tap a word to select it, then tap a bucket to place it.
🌱 Living
🪨 Nonliving
1. Which of these is a living thing?
2. What do all living things need to stay alive?
3. How do we know something is living?
4. Which of these is nonliving?
5. What can living things do that nonliving things cannot?
6. Is a tree living or nonliving?
7. Which sentence is true about nonliving things?
8. Which group shows only living things?
9. Is a seed living or nonliving?
10. Which sentence is correct?
Assessment
Parent / Teacher Checklist