Forums

Hi! I currently teach Kindergarten and one of the science concepts I teach is "Living and Non-Living" usually, I read fictional and non fictional books as well as show pictures of living and non living items. The students sort the pictures into the two groups as a class. Then they take an assessment where they need to sort a bunch of pictures on their own. After doing this activity as a class with what seems like a great success rate, it never fails to have at least half of my students "bomb" the assessment. Then I have to spend a few more days reteaching the lesson all over again! Anyone have any other ideas on getting a higher success rate the first time around?????

I used to do what you do and it does seem like quite a few bomb it as the assessment. I now have a page with pictures on it for them to cut and paste on a page divided into living and non living. That seems to help: I can see if they have the concept, if they are getting the concept, or they have no idea what to do. Then I talk about what is living and non-living. We make lists of what is living and non-living. After the list, I ask how do we know that it is living. I will review the lists and then give the assessment again and the students do better. Pat

I had the same problem when teaching this topic and what I did was bring in actual living things. I brought in a plant, my guinea pig, my fish, a gecko, and a bug. I showed each of them to the class and then showed them abiotic (nonliving) items. I put up a venn diagram that we completed together and led to a definition of what is living. For assessment, I have them draw a picture of their favorite place with one criteria. There had to be twenty five items in the picture. They then have to label each thing as living or non living.

Those are some great ideas about living and non-living. I also have students collect things from outside (we have a nice little garden area) that are "living" and non-living examples. This helps them understand the concepts as well. They need to work together to create a poster that has separated the living and non living things and then explain to the group. I have done this activity two times and it has always worked pretty well.

I agree with Catherine. Even with my third-graders, I have them bring in the items that they collected from outside and then physically place them on the paper to sort. For the actual "living creatures" I have them (but maybe for K's you should) draw the roach, beetle, isopod, ant or "moving" creature that was found. When you feel that the students are more comfortable (post-assessment) you could talk about the difference between a living and once-living plant, etc. (Remember, once a plant/flower is picked off a tree, is it really living anymore?)

Thanks to everyone for joining in and contributing to this great discussion on living and non-living things. Making categories to define them can be challenging for many students, K-5. Often, it is suggested that one begin the topic by eliciting information from the students. Brainstorm and find out what they think is a living thing; what is a non-living thing. Write their examples on a large board including pictures/simple drawings etc. for the non-readers with just enough description to jog their memories as they review the concepts later on. Then use some of the neat strategies already discussed in previous threads. Encourage the students to make lists of attributes for each category and to cut out and paste pictures from magazines etc. or to bring items from home and outside the classroom that are 'real.' I wouldn't shy away from having a few living critters along with rocks, wood, cloth, etc. This topic is intriguing to the teachers, too, and I find it useful to review resources that may enhance my personal thinking about categorizing living and non-living things and perhaps extending the ideas to the microscopic level. It is really neat to get students to view small bugs through a magnifying glass as well as to examing leaves - are they both living things? The Learning Center has at least two resources that stimulate my thinking... I'll post them here and then let's talk about how we could extend out lessons and probe the microcosmos as well as the macrocosmos. Is It Living? By: Page Keeley, Francis Eberle, and Lynn Farrin Grade Level: Elementary School, Middle School, High School A ‘free’ book chapter The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about living and nonliving things. The probe is designed to find out what attributes children focus on when considering if something is or was once living. Cell Structure and Function: Cells – The Basis of Life Grade Level: Elementary School, Middle School Science Objects are two hour on-line interactive inquiry-based content modules that help teachers better understand the science content they teach. This Science Object is the first of four Science Objects in the Cell Structure and Function SciPack. It explores the difference between living and non-living things as it looks at the many different types of cells. All self-replicating life forms are composed of cells,-from single-celled bacteria to elephants, with their trillions of cells. Although a few giant cells, such as hens' eggs, can be seen with the naked eye, most cells are microscopic. Multi-celled organisms are composed of many tiny microscopic cells, as opposed to fewer larger cells. Surface area to volume ratio makes efficient food absorption and waste removal possible in cells. ...patty

Hi Deanna,

You've gotten lots of great ideas from the other posters. In addition to the resources that Patty included with her post, you can also take a look at the Science and Children journal article Living or Nonlivig. The article describes a lesson for a 1st grade class, but you can modify the activities for a kindergarten classroom.

Like many of the posters, I've found it difficult to teach young students (K-2) about living and nonliving things abstractly. I really liked Kara suggestion to bring in ACTUAL live examples. Having the kids observe living fish, guinea pigs, plants, etc. helps them understand what living things are and what they need to live. Conversely, showing pictures of living things can sometimes be confusing to young students. Because they cannot actually experience the living thing eating, breathing, moving, needing water, etc it's hard for them to conceptually understand the difference between a living thing, like a picture of a fish, and a non-living thing, like a picture of a lego.

I know the K class at my school does an activity where they use a Venn Diagram. The diagram is set up with one circle being living, one being non-living and the middle being onced live (so things that are now non-living but used to be alive.) They find either pictures or actual things and place them in the diagram. I thought this idea was great because it covers the confusing area of what if things used to be alive. Hope this helps! :)

Hi Sara, What an excellent suggestion about using a VENN diagram; it can also be a great visual tool as well as one that enables the students to categorize, living, non-living, and was alive and now isn't. Isn't it great when we use student questions (What if it once was alive?) to guide us in helping students to sort items. I'm curious - did the students talk about fossils? or other things or humans who once were alive? Thanks for sharing...patty

Patty, They didn't go that deep into detail but what a great idea! I will be sure to bring it up to the teacher. Sara

Sara, Thanks and get back to us. I've worked with so many kids who were into dinosaurs and other fossils before entering Kindergarten that I wondered what the students were putting in that overlapping part of the VENN diagram. I still think it is a great idea and have filed it for future sharing as a neat strategy....patty

Hello All! Sara's introduction of the VENN diagram to assist students to categorize living/nonliving things led us to mention fossils and dinosaurs. This led me to browse the Learning Resources a bit and I came across this great resource for elementary and middle schools. What Can You Learn From Fossils? By: Thor Hansen and Irwin Slesnick Grade Level: Elementary School, Middle School I'm wondering if anyone has viewed this resource and how you may use fossils as something that once lived and now are nonliving? Any thoughts? Thanks for sharing

Attachments

What Can You Learn From Fossils? (Book Chapter)

Thanks Patricia!

Hi Sara~ Thanks for sharing such a great and easy idea! Sometimes the simplest things are what we overlook! I used your idea when we had a class discussion about coral reefs. We talked about what they species they thought would be the predators and which would be the prey. In the middle we had which species they thought could be both. Im so glad you suggested it. It is such a basic tool but somehow I always seem to use it more in writing. We also played the predator and prey game using what we learned through our venn diagram activity. Aloha Lia

Does anyone have pictures of completed Venn diagrams with living and non-living elements to share with other teachers? Thanks

Hi all - This activity is really great for students to work in a group to decide whether or not the word on the card is living or non-living. To make it more difficult for older students, you can include the category 'once living' or make them come up with their own examples for living and non-living categories.

Attachments

U2_-_ACT_living_or_not_living_SORT.docx (0.01 Mb)

Hi Everyone! Thank you for sharing all of your wonderful ideas. I also teach kindergarten and I have found that although the children can identify which things are living and which are nonliving they can not tell me why. To help with this we study living and nonliving things to come up with unique qualities of each that make them living and nonliving. For the nonliving items we investigate rocks, pencils, and those plastic plants that move with sunlight. For the living organisms we investigate the plants in our garden and an insect we find outside. From our investigation the children develop qualities that make certain things living and other nonliving. We talk about how they are the same and how they are different in terms of needs and characteristics. In addition to the investigations we also use videos from Discovery Education and I also like the book "What's Alive" by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld. Thanks again for all the great ideas. I can't wait to integrate them next year with what we do!

Hi there Deanna, I think that in order to get more of the students to pass the assessment, you would need to focus on at least one of the characteristics of living things that make it a living versus a non-living thing for example, "is able to grow and reproduce". This way, when the students come to a picture they are unsure about, they just need to go back to the question, "Can it make more of its kind? Can it grow?". Giving the students something (information) that they can turn to when stumped could help those that are unsure. For example, when shown a picture of a wooden bench, although they may get confused thinking it's made out of wood and wood can be considered a "(once) living thing", reminding themselves about the question, "can a bench make more of its kind?- do you see a bench on the sidewalk one day and then the next there appears 3 more on its own?" or "Does a bench grow? - does your wooden step stool at home that you brush your teeth with end up growing into a picnic table/bench over time?" will automatically tell them to categorize it as a non-living thing. 7th graders still need to be reminded of this as well but once given this characteristic (as well as the others), they can "weed" out the living from the non-living a lot easier. It's only when you get to things life "fire" (can be argued to reproduce and grow)..that we need to add in the characteristic, that all living things contain cells. Hope that helps.

In my class we went over living vs non living. I put a bunch of random organisms and objects that the students knew and I asked them what is alive. We put checks next to the ones that they said were alive. I then asked then what do you think of when something is alive and as they shared we were coming up with rules for living things such as movement, growth, using energy,etc.

A pre-assessment for my fourth graders I had students bring in one item what was living or dying and one item that was nonliving in a ziploc bag. I didn't explain what a living or nonliving item just that will be be using the items for science. Later that week we had a discussion about what makes something living and non-living. I gave students back their ziploc bag and they had to write an explanation in their science notebooks of why their item was non living or living. Of course after having the discussion some students realized they brought in two living or two non-living items. They stilled explained why they choose that item for a category and now why their opinion has changed. Students did a pair, share of their explanation and items. It was a great learning experience for students to really see living and non living items. We made tray to display our living and non-living items for the rest of the unit. It was a great activity I will continue to do. Thanks ,Helen

I recently did this activity with 5th graders; however, their understanding of living vs non living is more advance. You shouldn't feel bad that your student didn't understand since teaching is about help them "get it" even if you have to spend more time than planned. I believe the first step into helping K-5 student or all students for that matter to understanding living vs non living is to activate prior knowledge. You can ask them what they know about alive and not alive. Then you can teach them about living things and non living things, whether its through a picture book or video, You can also list characteristics that they shared and classify them on the board. Then you can have the students explore with concrete objects by classifying things inside the classroom (chair, table, computer) and then going outside and finding small animals (e.g., ladybug, beetle, butterfly) or having them plant a seed and observe over a week (since plants are usually the most difficult to understand). After students have done this you can show them the relationship between the things they found and help them understand the how to classify living things. After that, you can move towards more abstract pictures to assess.

Sorry I didn't have my computer this weekend to write this... I did this activity with a PD class I am currently taking and it was called Alive vs. Non-Alive. We focused on marine animals but this will work for any grade level or with any type of organisms. We had LIVE animals like hermit crabs, fish, seaweed, etc. Then we had non-living things like a fish wind-up toy, paper clip, etc. Then for questioning objects we had rocks (which actually had living coral on it), sand (which was once alive), sea shells (which were once living), etc. You can modify this activity however you need to in order to fit your grade level and level of learning. It's pretty fun and the kids really get into it.

Tina, I like the approach you posted regarding the lesson of living vs non-living. Would you have a handout or a full list of the examples you used? What grade level was this lesson taught to? How did you assess students and/evaluate their understanding of this concept? What additional examples did students come up with? Thanks.

I will try and post the activity as we did it in class as soon as I can. The lesson itself is more for middle and high school but it can be modified for elementary school easily.

I use inquiry by giving students actual living and non-living things and asking them to identify and explain why or why not the object is living or non-living. This helps me understand what their criteria's are and to then develop their lessons centered on their prior knowledge and conceptions.

I always start the year off with living and non-living concepts that I like to start the year off. This year, I tried to take a step back to try to simply have students identify the attributes of the "non-living" objects first. This year's group of students had challenges with the sort of leaves, flowers (objects that were once-living), so I extended the practice to doing a master sort of objects. I gave students a group of at least 6 pencils, pens, scissors, clips, which they had to tree sort out into what is "was" and what is "was not." My science methods instructor said that this process helps students recognize the practice of living and non-living. For example a leaf on the ground in non-living, but it was also "once-living." I understand the challenges many of the younger-grade teachers face since I still have similar experiences with every new class of 7-8 year olds that I get at the beginning of each school year. I'll have to dig out the actual content of the materials my professor gave me and scan them to help provide more concrete suggestions for this topic.

Wow, these are great ideas. I teach kindergarten this year and will be teaching living vs. non-living soon. I have had the same experience of using pictures and having the majority of my students fail our first assessment. I wanted to bring in real things but wasn't sure what kinds of things to bring. Thanks for the suggestion. I also really like the idea of taking it further and going over characteristics that make an item living or non-living. Thank you for the great ideas.

Living and Non-living things is always a fun concepts to teach. The students have a really good time identifying the reasons why items are classified as living or non-living. It seems that most Kindergarten classes do a similar activiy of sorting pictures into the two groups. I usually have a small percentage of students who don't do very well and therfore I plan ahead by having a poster for the whole group to work on. As a whole group activity we sort pictures into two categories in the designated areas. When students move to the final assessment they are familar with the type of activity they will be working on. I also use the same pictures from the group activity with just a few additions. Students are able to complete the activity successfully.

I have touched on this topic briefly in second grade. I start by dividing the front of the room into two sections, living and nonliving. I ask the students to individually sort easy items (teddy bear, chair, plant, insects, flower, dirt, bicycle, etc.). The students come up and physically move them. Then as a class, we create a list of what makes an object living. Next, I try to challenge them with harder concepts, like clouds, air, coral, and the ocean. For these challenging items I only have models or pictures. The challenge causes most of them to refer back to the list we made and try to grasp the concept. It isn't easy for all of the students, but the discussion that develops is priceless.

Our school is focusing on argumentative writing. I used the NSTA web site lesson book and adapted one of the activities to create an activity where students argued on whether "Fire Bob" is living or non-living. I provided information on this "new scientific discovery" and asked student to make a claim. They also backed up their claim with evidence, not opinion, from the given information. I had students choose a side and then work in small groups to defend their claim. We then came together as a whole class using philosophical chairs. This activity was a great way to uncover prior knowledge, in a safe, learning environment. I told students that they would not know for certain whether or not "Fire Bob" was living or non-living until next class's Cornell notes. Not only were students engaged and very vocal about their opinions, they listened to each other to base their argument. They were also very attentive when I provided them the notes on what justifies something as living. I’ve attached my modified lesson incase you are interested in trying this activity with your 7th graders. I’m sure it can be adapted for any age if you change the given information.

Attachments

Characteristics_of_Life_Constructive_Argument_PrePost_Activity.doc (0.04 Mb)

What if you had the students bring in one picture of a living thing and one picture of a non-living thing. Then use the pictures that the students bring in to make a collage of living and a collage of non-living. Maybe by the students bringing something in, they might remember the differences more. They also might remember the images that their friends bring in as well. This will give them a sense of ownership and possibly create a bit more excitement since the children might see this opportunity as a "show and tell" type project.

Hello, One of the things I have been learning about is to do inquiry learning, So to start of with our teacher had us go out-side and observe the environment around us and note down which things we thought were living and which were non-living. Afterwards we came together as a class and we had to defend why whatever item we wrote in each section was considered alive or not. This built up to us noticing the pattern of the 5 characteristics of living things being common in the things we put under living things. This might seem advanced for kinder-gardeners, but it might help them. Most children I notice classify living things, if what they are looking at has human functions, because they compare it to what makes them alive. I think this helps teachers notice misconceptions and can help in correcting the misconceptions.

Hello, One of the things I have been learning about is to do inquiry learning, So to start of with our teacher had us go out-side and observe the environment around us and note down which things we thought were living and which were non-living. Afterwards we came together as a class and we had to defend why whatever item we wrote in each section was considered alive or not. This built up to us noticing the pattern of the 5 characteristics of living things being common in the things we put under living things. This might seem advanced for kinder-gardeners, but it might help them. Most children I notice classify living things, if what they are looking at has human functions, because they compare it to what makes them alive. I think this helps teachers notice misconceptions and can help in correcting the misconceptions.

Hello I am a pore-service teacher and am currently observing a first grade classroom in Illinois. At the beginning of this semester I conducted a KWL activity with the first graders about living and nonliving things. A KWL is a graphic organizer that compiles what students know before learning about a topic, what they want to know and finally what they learned. The K and W were performed at the start of the unit, and was based solely on prior knowledge. The students then learned about living and nonliving things. At the end of the unit students compiled what they learned into the W section of the KWL. The KWL chart hung on the wall during the whole unit and sometime after so students could reflect on it.

When I taught Kindergarteners the concepts of living and non-living, we did a nature walk. Before the walk, I had them fold a paper in half and write "living" and "non-living" at the top of each page. We then would go on our nature walk and I would let the students sit and draw whatever they saw around them, putting each drawing into either the "living" or "non-living" columns. There was always the misconceptions that things that don't visibly move are "non-living", like flowers and trees. This gave the perfect opportunity to open a dialogue on why these misconceptions are not true and to explain that some things move in a way that we can't see, like flowers and trees, but they are still living. I think this really helped them to deeply understand these concepts better than just pictures, because they were making their own meanings and having conversations they needed to have with each other and me. We then made a class big book on things that are living and non-living. I would give each student a page for our big book and instruct them to choose their favorite living drawing from the nature walk and their favorite non-living drawing from the nature walk to draw on their book page. I would instruct them to do their best drawings because they are the authors and illustrators of our class book, and they will be able to teach their classmates about living and non-living things through their book page. After doing their illustrations, I would write the sentence models on the board: "A ______________ is living." and "A __________ is non-living." I would then show them how to fill in the blank with a word to matches their picture and write this at the bottom of their book page. The students absolutely loved making the class big book and really took ownership of this lesson. I think the fact that they were the authors and illustrators of the book helped them to internalize the concepts of living and non-living. Plus, the students would fight over who got to read the book during independent reading, so they loved to read that book over and over. I had good results from doing these lessons and the students performed really well on their assessments, so I would definitely recommend the lessons to other teachers out there teaching living vs. non-living. Hope this helps you!

I love this idea of a nature walk and having them chart their information. Thanks for the idea!