Living things: Science and my first freebie!

We will begin our unit on "The Needs of Living Things" after Christmas break, but I like to start out the unit by talking about the differences between living and non-living things. While students think they are pretty good at identifying living and non-living things, the question I pose to students is, "How do you know?" I've come up with 4 simple questions for students to ask themselves when determining if something is living...

Does it eat?

Does it need air?

Does it grow?

Does it reproduce?

Students must prove that something is living by talking as scientists, "I know it is living because it eats, it can grow, it needs air, and it can make more of itself (reproduce)." Students will sort using the freebie below! I usually print it at 85% and cut it down so they can put it in their science notebooks. The second page is doubled up for easy printing.

Get it here------>     Living/ Non-Living Picture Sort

Enjoy!