ShareAlive or Not? - Are You Dead or Alive?
What makes something living or nonliving?
Look
closely at the picture at the right. Notice the rabbit. Click the
rabbit to watch a movie showing it move!
What proves this bunny alive? We know it is alive because it moves, grows and has parents!
Is
a plant a living thing? It grows and reproduces but doesn't move
much. Animals usually move around a lot.
Organisms are all things that are alive. Plants are organisms. So plants are alive!
Here are the characteristics of living things:
- Reproduce
- Grow
- Moves (that means it may creep, crawl, walk, run, fly, swim, jump, or hop)
- Breathe
- Eat
- Makes waste
Examples of living things:
- Animals
- Plants
- Insects
- Birds
- Snails
- Worms
How about nonliving things? Nonliving things can move, but they do not grow or have parents.
Look close at these pictures:
These are nonliving things because they cannot grow, reproduce, or have parents.
Here are the characteristics of nonliving things:
- Do not breathe
- Do not eat
- Do not reproduce or have parents
- Do not grow
- Do not produce waste
Examples of nonliving things:
- Rocks
- Air
- Water
- Wind
- Fire
- Sound
- Metal
Most
of the time it is easy to tell if something is living or nonliving. But
sometimes things that were once living are now nonliving things? Look
at these shells.
They were once a part of something living but now they are nonliving.
Examples of once-living things:
- Shells
- Dead animals
- Dried plants
- Hair
Look at the pictures below. Click on the pictures of things that are living.
