Lesson Plan and Worksheets Characteristics of Living and non-living Plants and animals

1. Lesson Plan and worksheets
on
Characteristics of Living Things
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2. Characteristics of living things
Pre-requisite knowledge/skills:
Learning outcomes: The students will be able to:
• Identify the seven characteristics of living things
• Differentiate between living and non-living
• Infer that living things have modifications according to their habits, need and habitat.
Materials / resources required: Chart, fact sheet
Essential Unit Questions:
• What are the characteristics of living things
• What are the criteria of classification of plants and animals?
Time Class setting/
Resources
Learning Sequence
10mins Whole class Introduction:
Have the students to take out their home assignment and
ask if any one faced any difficulty. Have the students read
out their answers and discuss them.
Show to the students a few samples of living and non-living
things and ask them to tell the differences between them.
Solicit the reply that they can be classified as living or non-
living, natural or man-made.
Ask them what they understand by living and non-living
things by giving examples.
20 min
Whole class
discussion/Group
activity/half chart
paper
Phase 1: Instructional Process
Tell the students that the following activity is a group
work. Each group has to write down what they think are
the characteristics of living things.
Ask how can they differentiate between living and non-
living things?
Divide the class into groups.
Phase 2:
After the groups have finished their work ask them to read
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3. out their answers and using mind mapping tool given as
reference write on the blackboard the seven main
characteristics of living things
Ask students:
What are the different characteristics of livings thing?
Conclude by saying that the main differences are:
Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Growth, Nutrition,
Reproduction, Excretion, and.
Let’s now take up each characteristic and discuss about it.
Movement:
• Ask the students what they understand by
movement.
• Why do living things move?
• How do insects, birds, fishes, etc move?
• Do plants also move?
• How do animals move?
• Why do they move?
Respiration:
• What is respiration?
• Do plants also respire/how do plants breathe?
• How do they breathe?
• How do animals breathe? (Land, water, worms and
insects)
Sensitivity:
• What do you understand by sensitivity?
• When you prick your hand what do you do?
• When you see some insect near your eye what do
you do?
• What happens when you feel very cold?
• What are the different sense organs?
• Do you think plants are also sensitive?
Growth:
• Ask: What is growth?
• Do all living things grow?
• How do plants grow?
• Give an example?
• Do animals show growth?
Reproduction:
• What is reproduction?
• Why do living things reproduce?
• How do plants reproduce?
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4. • Where are seeds produced?
• How do animals reproduce?
Excretion:
• What is excretion?
• Why do living things excrete?
• How do animals excrete?
• What do they excrete?
• Do plants have any organs for excretion?
Nutrition:
• What is nutrition?
• Why do living thing need food?
• How do animals produce food?
• How do plants produce food?
• Why are leaves green?
• Name the process through which plants make their
own food?
Tell the students that living thing must have all the MRS
GREN characteristics to be classified as living.
10 minsGroup
work./enlarged copy
of the incomplete
mind map/fact sheet
Phase 3:
After the mind mapping on the BB, the students have to read
the fact sheet and complete the in-complete mind map.
10 minsPaired work/
worksheet
Phase 4:
After the group the students will work in pair and complete
the table on the work sheet.
5
mins
Whole class/work
sheet
Phase 4:
Feedback:
Whole class Closure:
Ask the students:
• What are the characteristics of living things
• What are the differences between plants and animals
Home work worksheet
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5. Kavita Grover Page 5

6. Fact Sheet
Characteristics of living things
1. MOVEMENT
Most living things move. Living things move in order to survive.
Plants move but do not move their position. They are able to move
parts of themselves.
Plants move their roots towards water and towards the centre of the earth. They move their
stems and leaves towards light.
Animals move to keep themselves safe and to look for food.
Some animals move on land, air and water.
2. RESPIRATION
All living things need oxygen to stay alive. They use oxygen to turn
food into energy.
To obtain oxygen from the air, animals and plants exchange gases
between themselves and their surroundings.
Green plants exchange gases with their surroundings through holes in
the under-surface of their leaves. These holes are called stomata.
Animals have different organs of breathing depending in the habitat they stay.
.
3. SENSITIVITY:
All living things react to stimuli. This means they are sensitive to changes in their
surroundings and react to them.
All animals are sensitive to what is happening around them.
Example we shiver when it is cold. We withdraw our hand when
we touch a hot thing. Some animals have complicated nervous
systems and brains. They have a sense of taste, sight, hearing,
touch and smell.
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Fishes, which live under water,
obtain oxygen using gills
Worms get oxygen through the
surface of their skin, and insects use
breathing tubes called trachea.
Most land animals have
lungs.

7. Plants also respond to stimuli, but in a different way to animals. Some plants turn towards
the sunlight. Their roots sense and move towards water. The sun flower turns its face
towards the sun, during the day and droop when the sun has set.
4. GROWTH
All living things grow. This means they increase their size. They can grow taller. They can
grow wider.
5. REPRODUCTION
All living things reproduce, this means that they make copies of themselves before they die.
.
Plants which have flowers reproduce from seeds. The new seedlings then grow into plants.
Other plants grow from spores and cuttings.
6. EXCRETION
Living things have to remove the harmful effects of waste products from their body.
Some of these waste products are: carbon-di oxide, nitrogen and water.
.
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Plants grow taller and wider. Seedlings grow into
bigger plants. Plants increase their size in all
directions. And their shape is changing all the
time.
Baby animals grow into adult animals.
Animals also grow taller and wider, but
can only increase their size in a definite
shape.
Some animals reproduce by laying eggs.
Frogs, snakes most fish and insects lay eggs.
When the young ones of these animals hatch
they have to take care of themselves
Mammals like dogs, cow, rabbits etc give birth to
you to young ones. The mother suckles the young
ones with her milk. Man is also a mammal.
Animals, such as humans, cats, dogs, remove
the harmful effects of the gas carbon dioxide
by breathing out. They also breathe out
water vapor. The main organs which remove
nitrogen waste from the body are the
kidneys

8. Plants also produce waste nitrogen, but only in small amounts. They do not possess organs
to remove it, so store it in some of their cells after they have turned it into a harmless
substance. Some harmful wastes are excreted from the bark of the tree.
7. NUTRITION
All living things feed. They feed to supply themselves with energy.
Most green plants make their own food. They make their food
from the simple raw materials carbon dioxide and water. The
green color (chlorophyll) in the leaves together with sunlight
allows carbon dioxide and water to be combined. This process
is called photosynthesis.
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Animals do not make
their own food. They
feed on plants, other
animals, and on dead
waste.

9. Worksheet 1
Using MRS GREN criteria of classification write the differences between plants and
animals.
PLANTS ANIMALS
Worksheet 2
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10. 1) Draw 2 pictures of each of each of the following.
Natural things
Man made things
Living
Non-living things
2) Write the names of two items in the class room that were:
Living
Once living but now dead
Never living
3) What are the similarities and differences between plants and animals?
4) How do the following animals breathe? Draw and write their names of the organs.
Worms
Insects
Fishes
Birds
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11. Short answer types
1) What are the seven characteristic of living things?
2) How do green plants make their food?
3) What are the different sense organs?
4) Where are seeds produced?
5) Do plants have any organs for excretion?
6) What is nutrition?
7) Why are leaves green?
8) How do plants breathe?
9) What is the difference between the growth of plants and animals?
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12. Worksheet 3
Using MRS GREN criteria for classification complete the table given below. Identify if it’s
living or non-living.
Thing M R S G R E N Living/Non-
living
Computer
mouse
Cockroach
Mushroom
Rock
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13. Sprite
Nail
Clouds
Tree
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