Living Things

What Makes something alive??

Which of the following are alive?

Bacteria

Frog Water

Tree Insect

Baby

Fish

Rock

Mushrooms

What do all the Things you have identified as living have in common?

MovementRespirationSensitivityFeedingExcretionReproductionGrowth

Remember MRS FERG

Movement

Movement means the ability of an organism to change positionSome organisms can move the entire body

Some organisms can move part of the body eg plants

Some organisms can move boththeir entire body, and each section of the body eg insects, amphibians, reptiles, mammals

Most organisms move towards things they need and away from things that harm them

Respiration

Respiration means releasing energy from foodGlucose in the food is broken down inside cells, and

energy is releasedMost organisms use oxygen for this process

Sensitivity

Sensitivity means the ability of an organism to gather information and respond to it

Some of the things that cause living organisms to respond are light, sound, touch, chemicals, gravity…eg:

Roots grow downwards in response to gravity, shoots grow towards light

Both plants and animals use their sense of touch when climbing

Predators use sound and smell to hunt for prey

Feeding

Feeding means getting FoodAll living organisms need food for energyPlants can make their own food using energy from

the sun (photosynthesis)Animals need to find an outside source of food

Excretion

Excretionmeans the removal of toxic chemical substances

toxic substances are poisonous and may harm cells if not removed

examples of toxic substances are carbon dioxide and urea

Reproduction

Reproduction means producing more organisms of the species

Some organisms reproduce from one parent only – this is called ASEXUAL reproduction

Other organisms reproduce by combining one cell from a male with one cell from a female – this is called SEXUAL reproduction

Growth

Growth meansthe organism develops into an adultFor micro-organisms, this means their cell grows to

full size before reproducingFor multi-celled organisms, this means that cells

divide, organs grow in size, and systems develop maturity

2 main groups of living things

1. Plants

2. Animals

There is a huge variety of Animals

This means that we need to divide the animal kingdom into 2 groups

Vertebrates – Have a backbone

Invertebrates – Have no back bone

Can you guess the Vertebrates + Invertebrates?

Bone Blaster game SnailAnt DolphinHedgehogCrabFishStarfishBeeSnake

LobsterPlatypusSpiderWormFoxFrogDragonflyBlackbird

Vertebrates are divided into 5 groups

Plants

Plants are living organisms fixed in one position and cannot move around they can only moves parts

Plants contain a green chemical called chlorophyll and can make their own food by photosynthesis

How do you Identify Plants + Animals you don’t know?

A key is a system that gives you a few simple questions at a time and you work through the key by answering questions and eventually identifying organisms

Lets try a few online!And another!Now see if you can use the key on page 3 of

your book