Living or Non-Living? Identify and Explain
Circle the living things, use the life-characteristics word bank to explain your choices, then draw and label an example of your own.

- Grades
- Preschool–Junior Kindergarten, Grades 1–2
- Pages
- 1
- File type
- Subject
- Biology, Earth Sciences, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Science
- Resource types
- Worksheets
- Ontario expectations
- B2.1 — demonstrate an understanding of the natural environment as…
From the author
About this resource
This activity is a great way for students to practice identifying living things and determining why they are living. This would be a great activity to use in a science centre or as a whole class activity.
In the classroom
Teaching tips & learning objectives
Learning objectives
- Identify which of several pictured items are living things
- Justify a living/non-living classification using specific characteristics of life (grows, breathes, uses energy, adapts)
- Illustrate and label an example of a living thing
Teaching tips
- Review the four word-bank terms as a class before students work independently, since the writing task depends on students already knowing what each term means.
- Use the discussion prompt as a partner talk step between the circling task and the writing task, since the page explicitly separates "circle," "write," and "discuss."
Skills covered
- Living-thing classification — students circle which pictured items are alive.
- Scientific vocabulary application — students select and write characteristics (grows, breathes, uses energy, adapts) that justify each classification.
- Science communication — students draw and label an original example of a living thing.
No reviews yet
Downloaded this resource? Tell other teachers how it went.
Ontario curriculum
Ontario curriculum expectations
Ontario expectations
- B2.1 — demonstrate an understanding of the natural environment as a place where living and non-living things are interconnected
Core concepts
- Characteristics of living things
- Life vs. non-life
- Scientific vocabulary
Explore more
Categories this resource belongs to
Explore related searches
More to explore















