Living things and habitats · Grade 1
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.
Answer: living: snail, daisy; dead: wooden spoon, dry leaf; never alive: pebble, glass marble
Example 2
Why do woodlice live under logs and stones?
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.
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?
Answer: 3; woodlice prefer damp, dark places