Field Investigation: Living or Non-living

Students learn how to identify and compare living and non-living things, and then use these patterns to analyze their observations in the outdoor classroom.

Click on the orange links to access free educational materials:

Lesson Plans | ALSDE Standards Taught

Activity Page: (Word Doc / PDF) with Answer Page

Outdoor Activity Materials: activity pages, clipboards, pencils (garden trowels & magnifying glasses optional)

Step 1: Engage through Discussion

Engage the students and capture their interests with an Interactive Q&A (or as PDF) that allows you to click through the questions one at a time. You can gauge your students’ understanding of the topic as they answer the questions.

Print and use the Q&A Info Sheet (or as Word Doc) to anticipate the next question in the Interactive Q&A and to guide the conversation with the students. (Note: For the PowerPoint (PPT), click “Slide Show” & “From Beginning” to display the questions and answers separately.)

Use these tools to continue the discussion:

Living & Nonliving Characteristics Charts (or as Word Doc)
“It is Living” Song (or as Word Doc)
Background Info (or as Word Doc)

Step 2: Explore with Literature

As you read this book, you can further explore the topic and discuss your students’ experiences and knowledge around the topic:

What’s Alive? (Let’s Read & Find Out Science Series: Level 1) by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
(ISBN: 978-0064451321)

Step 3: Explain with an Educational Video

Use these educational videos to help explain the topic in more detail:

Use this educational video to help explain the topic in more detail:

Sesame Street’s “Who’s Alive?” (3:15 min.)
@ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giWqEPNLtBo

Step 4: Elaborate with a Field Investigation in the Outdoor Classroom

Students apply what they have learned as they investigate the topic in your outdoor classroom and record their real-world observations on their Living of Nonliving Field Investigation Activity Page (or as Word Doc).

Activity Tips

Review the Outdoor Classroom Rules with students before going outside.
Let the children use garden trowels to dig in the soil for animals such as worms, and give them magnifying glasses to use.

Procedure

Outdoor Discovery:

Have students look for one example of a living thing, draw a picture of it, and write what it is called.
Then have them look for one example of a non-living thing, draw a picture of it, and write what it is called.

Indoor Discussion:

Ask the students to answer the questions to prove that the living thing is living.
Then ask them to answer the questions to prove that the non-living thing is not living.
Discuss how ALL living things (plants and animals) grow, move and change, whereas non-living things do NOT grow, move or change (unless we alter them…like sharpening a pencil).
Discuss how ALL living things (plants and animals) breathe, eat and drink, whereas non-living things do NOT breathe, eator drink.

Optional Extension:

Use the AWF’s Wonders of Wildlife webpages to review the various life cycle stages of different types of animals to demonstrate how animals grow and change.

Step 5: Evaluate with an Assessment Activity

Review and assess the students’ observations and answers on their activity page: Answer Page

Evaluate the students’ understanding of the topic with one of the following assessment tools:

Living & Nonliving Scavenger Hunt (or as a Word Doc)
Living or Nonliving Quiz (or as a Word Doc)
Search for Living & Nonliving Things (or as a Word Doc)

Questions? Contact us at oc@alabamawildlife.org.

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