Living things and habitats

Everything can be sorted as living, dead (once alive) or never alive. Living things move, respire, sense, grow, reproduce, get rid of waste and need food. A habitat is the natural home of a living thing: it gives it food, water and shelter. Habitats change, and the living things in them must cope or move.

Key facts

  • The seven life processes (MRS GREN): Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Growth, Reproduction, Excretion and Nutrition.
  • Living: alive now (a dog, a tree). Dead: was once alive (a fallen leaf, a wooden table). Never alive: has never been alive (a rock, glass, a metal spoon).
  • A habitat gives living things food, water, shelter and a safe place to raise their young. A microhabitat is a very small habitat, like under a log or a stone.
  • Habitats include ponds, woodland, deserts, the seashore, oceans, rainforests and the polar regions.
  • Animals have life cycles: a frog goes frogspawn → tadpole → froglet → frog; a butterfly goes egg → caterpillar → chrysalis → butterfly.
  • Environments change with the seasons, floods and droughts, and because of people (building, cutting down forests, pollution). Nature reserves, ponds and new trees help living things.

Worked examples

Example 1

Sort these into living, dead and never alive: a snail, a pebble, a wooden spoon, a daisy, a glass marble, a dry leaf.

  1. Is it alive now? The snail and the daisy grow, feed and reproduce: living.
  2. Was it once alive? The spoon is made of wood from a tree, and the leaf fell off a plant: dead.
  3. A pebble and glass have never been alive.

Answer: living: snail, daisy; dead: wooden spoon, dry leaf; never alive: pebble, glass marble

Example 2

Why do woodlice live under logs and stones?

  1. Woodlice dry out easily. Under a log it is damp and shady.
  2. They eat dead, rotting wood and leaves, so their food is right there.
  3. The log also hides them from birds and other predators: shelter.

Answer: it is damp, dark and cool there, so they don’t dry out, and they feed on the rotting wood and leaves

Example 3

Put the life cycle of a frog in order: frog, tadpole, frogspawn, froglet.

  1. A female frog lays eggs in water: frogspawn.
  2. A tadpole hatches. It lives in water and breathes with gills.
  3. It grows legs and loses its tail: a froglet.
  4. It becomes an adult frog, which can lay frogspawn of its own.

Answer: frogspawn → tadpole → froglet → frog

Example 4

Ava puts 20 woodlice in a tray with a damp, dark side and a dry, light side. After 10 minutes, 17 are on the damp, dark side. How many are on the dry, light side, and what does this show?

  1. All 20 are in the tray, so take away the 17. 20 − 17 = 3
  2. Far more chose the damp, dark side, so woodlice prefer damp, dark places – like under logs.

Answer: 3; woodlice prefer damp, dark places