TEACH PRESCHOOL SCIENCE
  • Home
  • Lesson Plans Index
    • Life Science Plants and Animals >
      • Comparing Leaves
      • Exploring Pumpkins
      • Shucking Corn
      • Earthworm Observation
      • Parent and Baby Animals
      • Collecting Ants
      • Spider Season
      • Visit to a Pet Store
      • Living and Non Living Things
      • Animals Come in Many Shapes, Sizes and Colors
      • Ways Animals Move
      • Animals Need to Eat
      • Difference Between Wild and Tame Animals
      • People Can Use Products Provided by Animals and Plants
      • Animal Coverings - Hair, Fur, Feathers, Scales and Skin
      • Animals Live in Different Places
      • Metamorphosis and Change in Biology
      • Nocturnal Animals
      • Egg Science
      • Exploring Fish
      • Tree Skin Bark
      • Roots Growing Potatoes in Water
      • Stems - Making Daisy and Clover Chains
      • Flowers
      • Digging in the Dirt
    • Life Science People Index >
      • Parts of Our Body and How We Use Them
      • Our Heart
      • Our Hands
      • Our Feet
      • Fun With Balance
      • Sound Search
      • Sense of Touch
      • Exploring the Sense of Sight
      • Follow That Scent
      • Stop That Germ!
      • Interesting Tools That Doctors Use
      • We Need Healthy Teeth
      • Keep Those Muscles Moving!
    • Physical Science Index >
      • Blowing Bubbles
      • Magnify!
      • Ways to Measure Time
      • Magnetic Attraction
      • Ramps in Motion
      • Ice Melting
      • Sink or Float a Boat
      • Sponges and water
      • Dropping Things Through the Air
      • Static Electricity
      • Battery Electricity
      • Properties of Soap and Water
      • Weights and Balances
      • How Can Heat Change Things?
      • Tools Can Help Us Do Things
      • Lifting with Levers
      • Earth and Sky Science Index >
        • Shadow Chasing
        • Sun Effects
        • The Night Sky
        • Kinds of Clouds
        • Dressing for the Season
        • Classifying Rocks
        • Colors of the Rainbow
        • Who Has Seen the Wind?
        • Rain
        • Snow
        • Litter Hunt
        • We Can Take Care of the Earth
      • Wheels
      • Predicting How Simple Machines Will Work
      • Computers and Other Devices
      • Discoveries With Straws
      • Different Ways of Making Light
  • Teaching Notes
  • Links
  • Contact

Living and Non Living Things


Core Learning Experience + Supplies and Equipment

  • ​The idea here is to demonstrate one of the ways to categorize things in our world, into living things, nonliving natural things, and human-made things.  Use photos or real items.  This will need lots of discussion and experience before the children can do the categorizing themselves.
  • Provide many opportunities for handling and exploring all kinds of natural items.
  • Show a set of photos – find something that can move by itself.  Find something that eats food.  Find something that doesn’t grow.  Have the children ask you to find things, too.

Possible/Expected Discoveries

  • ​Living things need food and water to live; they grow and change; they have babies/reproduce; self-directed movement; breathing/respiration; sensitivity to environment.
  • Plants are also living things. Can they move by themselves?  Movement goes on inside them, when they use nutrition from the earth to grow.  Their babies are seeds. 
  • Show 2 items, one obviously living (earthworm, insect, spider, cat etc) and one obviously not (rock, plate, toy etc) Observe similarities and differences.  Of course all the differing characteristics will not be noted, but this will provoke discussion and thought.
  • People and animals are alive.  They can move by themselves, breathe, have babies, eat.  Living things can also die.

Extended Learning and Other Curriculum Areas

  • ​​Create a large chart categorizing thins that are living, and things that are non-living.  Label them.
  • Older preschoolers can work on a Venn diagram (two large overlapping circles).  In one circle, put natural things, in the other circle put human-made things and in the overlap, put things that have components of both human-made and natural.  This will take a lot of thinking and discussion.  Some ideas for human made/natural might be – a natural fiber rug; cotton clothes; flowers in a pot; paper; leather shoes etc.
Teach preschool science - living and non-living things
Picture
Picture

Activity Packs and Printables

Living or not living?  Lots or real photos and printables
Living or not living? Lots or real photos and printables. 47 pages. $4.50
Living and Non-Living Things - PreK level.
Living and Non-Living Things - PreK level. $3.75

Websites

​http://www.saburchill.com/chapters/chap0001.html

Books

What's Alive? (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1) - Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld ​

USEFUL LINKS

Home
​Main index
Teaching notes
Resource links

Support

Contact
Privacy Policy
This site is sponsored and supported by the preschool themes site www.KidSparkz.com
Activities written by (c) Susan Portman
Pre-K, Kindergarten, First, Second, Third, Homeschooler - TeachersPayTeachers.com
Copyright © 2005-2023 Teach Preschool Science - Permission granted to reproduce for personal educational use only. Commercial copying or selling is prohibited. No part of this resource may be uploaded to, or published on, any other site for any reason.
  • Home
  • Lesson Plans Index
    • Life Science Plants and Animals >
      • Comparing Leaves
      • Exploring Pumpkins
      • Shucking Corn
      • Earthworm Observation
      • Parent and Baby Animals
      • Collecting Ants
      • Spider Season
      • Visit to a Pet Store
      • Living and Non Living Things
      • Animals Come in Many Shapes, Sizes and Colors
      • Ways Animals Move
      • Animals Need to Eat
      • Difference Between Wild and Tame Animals
      • People Can Use Products Provided by Animals and Plants
      • Animal Coverings - Hair, Fur, Feathers, Scales and Skin
      • Animals Live in Different Places
      • Metamorphosis and Change in Biology
      • Nocturnal Animals
      • Egg Science
      • Exploring Fish
      • Tree Skin Bark
      • Roots Growing Potatoes in Water
      • Stems - Making Daisy and Clover Chains
      • Flowers
      • Digging in the Dirt
    • Life Science People Index >
      • Parts of Our Body and How We Use Them
      • Our Heart
      • Our Hands
      • Our Feet
      • Fun With Balance
      • Sound Search
      • Sense of Touch
      • Exploring the Sense of Sight
      • Follow That Scent
      • Stop That Germ!
      • Interesting Tools That Doctors Use
      • We Need Healthy Teeth
      • Keep Those Muscles Moving!
    • Physical Science Index >
      • Blowing Bubbles
      • Magnify!
      • Ways to Measure Time
      • Magnetic Attraction
      • Ramps in Motion
      • Ice Melting
      • Sink or Float a Boat
      • Sponges and water
      • Dropping Things Through the Air
      • Static Electricity
      • Battery Electricity
      • Properties of Soap and Water
      • Weights and Balances
      • How Can Heat Change Things?
      • Tools Can Help Us Do Things
      • Lifting with Levers
      • Earth and Sky Science Index >
        • Shadow Chasing
        • Sun Effects
        • The Night Sky
        • Kinds of Clouds
        • Dressing for the Season
        • Classifying Rocks
        • Colors of the Rainbow
        • Who Has Seen the Wind?
        • Rain
        • Snow
        • Litter Hunt
        • We Can Take Care of the Earth
      • Wheels
      • Predicting How Simple Machines Will Work
      • Computers and Other Devices
      • Discoveries With Straws
      • Different Ways of Making Light
  • Teaching Notes
  • Links
  • Contact