Is It Alive? Sorting the Backyard

We are learning to sort things into living, once living and never living, using the characteristics that living things share.

Before you startAbout 55 minutes · what success looks like · notes for the helper

About 55 minutes. It's fine to stop after the Quick Check and come back another day: the lesson opens where you left it, at the Quick Check.

You'll know you've got it when

I can name the characteristics that count as evidence of life: grows, needs food and water, reproduces, responds and makes waste
I can sort things into living, once living and never living and give a reason for each
I can ask a question about a tricky case and make a prediction I can check

For the helperhow to sit beside this lesson, and what this step is for

This step: Spark

Start with the question at the top and chat about it. There is no wrong answer here: it gets your learner thinking about what they already know.

Getting ready: A dry bean or pea seed (from a seed packet or saved from the garden, not for eating), a pebble of about the same size, two cups with a little damp paper towel in each, paper and a pencil, and ten minutes outside in the yard, a park or your street. A bit of room on the table is useful for the sorting. The Seed and the Pebble Trial and the Question Wall carry on for a few minutes a day over the following week, so they spread past one sitting. The lesson itself is about 55 minutes, longer than one comfortable sitting at this age; many families stop after the check and do the chosen task the next day.
What understanding sounds like: Listen for your child giving a reason that uses the characteristics rather than how a thing looks: 'it grows and needs water' or 'it only moves because the wind pushes it'. A reason with a 'because' matters more than landing every item in the right group first time.
A likely mix-up, and something that helps: The common mix-up is that anything that moves is alive and anything still is not, so clouds and wind-up toys get in and seeds and trees stay out. You might ask, 'Does it grow, need food and water, and make more of itself?' For the seed, one way is to say, 'It is not doing much now. What could we do to find out whether it can?'
If it comes easily: If it comes easily, you might ask your child to find a thing that could be argued two ways, such as a seed or a feather, and to write down the best argument for each group before choosing one.
If it's a struggle: If it is a struggle, one way is to start with just two groups, a magpie and a rock, and say the five characteristics aloud while pointing at each. Adding 'once living' after that can feel like a new, easier step. If your child does not want to sort today, the seed and the pebble on the table are enough on their own: a prediction about which one will grow is real science, and the sorting can wait. Seeds and soil stay out of mouths, and hands are worth washing afterwards.

Step 1 of 6 · Spark

Lesson 1 of 5 · Alive, Once Alive or Never Alive

The seed that does nothing

For the helper

Start with the question at the top and chat about it. There is no wrong answer here: it gets your learner thinking about what they already know.

Here are two things on the table: a dry bean seed and a pebble about the same size. Neither moves. Neither makes a sound. Both look as dead as each other. But one of them could grow into a plant taller than you. Which one? And how could you prove it without cutting either one open? Write down your prediction and your reason before you read on.

A bean and a pebble. Both still, both silent. Which one could grow?