Curated OER
The Seven Characteristics of Life
Third graders investigate the characteristics of living and nonliving things. They conduct a research quest in order to identify the seven characteristics of life. Then students pick one aspect and use it to create a song meant to be...
Curated OER
How A Garden Grows
Fourth graders explore the importance of plants to animals and visa versa. After reading a book, The Tree in the Ancient Forest, they explore how plants and animals are independent. Students list living and nonliving things they...
Curated OER
Observing and Recording Biological Data
Learners create their own definition of life. They identify the eight characteristics of life in organisms. They compare and contrast the characteristics of living and nonliving things.
Curated OER
Living Organisms All Around Us
Sixth graders study organisms that exist in the world and what they are made up of. They participate in a nature walk, a presentation, a drawing of an animal and plant cell, draw a ecosystem, and fill out a Punnett square.
Curated OER
C.M. Beg
First graders are introduced to a pretend boy named C.M. Beg. The initials of the boy be a mnemonic device to help students explain the basic characteristics of living things.
Curated OER
Scavenging the Sandy Shore
Students explore oceanography by examining a beach. In this living things lesson, students define the terms abiotic and biotic and practice identifying living and non-living things that have been previously found on a beach. Students...
Curated OER
Looking at the Community Tree
Third graders review the characteristics of living and nonliving organisms. As a class, they observe a tree and describe the interactions between the living and nonliving organisms surrounding it. To end the instructional activity,...
Curated OER
Investigation 2 - Greenhouses
Third graders set up a miniature greenhouse to help them explain how nonliving things affect the growth of living things.
Curated OER
Lunch
First graders view and sort a display of fruits and vegetables by one characteristic. They listen as the teacher reads the story, "Lunch." Students identify items on the pages as living or nonliving, fruit or vegetable. Using magazines,...
Curated OER
A Couch or a Potato
Learners classify objects and organisms seen on the Wakulla Springs icam website as living or nonliving.
Curated OER
Exploring the Great Salt Lake
Third graders participate in a scavenger hunt, looking for things that are unique about the ecosystem in and around the lake. They observe and describe a variety of habitats and distinguish living and nonliving elements of...
Curated OER
Extra! Extra!
Students describe how plants and animals depend on each other. They see how living and nonliving environments change over time. They identify ways in which humans have changed their environment and the effects of those changes.
Curated OER
It's Alive
Students identify the differences between a nonliving and living thing. They describe what is needed for any living thing to survive. They create one page for the class book identifying why the object is a living thing.
Curated OER
Is It Alive?
First graders explore living things and their habitats. They create an original It's Alive! book to demonstrate what they have learned.
Curated OER
Who Lives with Mallard?
Students color a picture of the habitat featuring mallard and other creatures, some of whom might be camouflaged or half-hidden. They discuss other forms of animal adaptation.
Curated OER
Three Worm Lesson
Third graders observe properties of three worms. In this living and non-living lesson, 3rd graders study characteristics of living and non-living worms. Students experiment to find how light, heat and moisture effects each of the worms....
Curated OER
Cell Structures and Functions
Fifth graders search into animal and cell characteristics and their functions in this seven lesson unit. Replicas of the cell are constructed out of Jell-O as students probe the internet for details of the concepts.
Curated OER
Food Chain/Food Web
Students explore ecosystems. In this ecology lesson, students read an article explaining ecosystems. Students create a visual organizer with index cards using components of various ecosystems.
Curated OER
What Lives in the Forest?
Students investigate nearby forests and record their interactions with trees as well as wild life. For this ecology lesson, students read the book, In the Woods: Who's Been Here?, and attend class observational field trips through their...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Carbon, Greenhouse Gases, and Climate
Climate models mathematically represent the interactions of the atmosphere, oceans, land, sun, surface, and ice. Part two in the series of four lessons looks at the role greenhouse gases play in keeping Earth warm and has participants...
Curated OER
Cells
Third graders investigate yeast to extend their understanding of living and non-living things.
Curated OER
What It Is, What It Isn't
Third graders classify and sort different types of beans to be introduced to the classification system in science. As a class, they identify the characteristics of living and non-living organisms and make a chart in their journal to ...
Montana State University
Everest Extremes: Biodiversity
How many animals can live in a climate as cold as Mount Everest's? Find out with a science instructional activity all about biodiversity. Activities include research, presentations, group work, coloring maps, and a simulation of a food web.
Random House
Recipe for an Ecosystem
Creating an ecosystem is as simple as baking a cake. Well, maybe not, but using a recipe analogy helps learners realize that ecosystems consist of different components that come together in unique ways. Offer this worksheet as an...