Download Lesson 1: `Identifying things that are alive`

 Year 2 Science curriculum area ‘Living things and habitats’ Lesson 1: ‘Identifying things that are alive' NB There should be an introductory lesson prior to lesson 1 to assess the children’s knowledge at the start of the topic and to allow them to pose questions about what they would like to learn. Learning Objectives To identify living things. Resources Vocabulary Starter activity Main activities Plenary activity Assessment ! Pot plant, animal (such as a worm or snail), piece of fruit, laptop or other object that has never been alive. ! Pictures or photographs of living plants and animals, things that used to be alive (e.g. fallen apple, dead leaves) and things that have never been alive (e.g. car, computer). ! Camera for the ‘Living things Hunt’. Living, alive, not alive, dead, object, sort, similarities, differences, natural, man-­‐made, manufactured. 1. Show the children a pot plant, a worm/snail/class pet/or yourself, a piece of fruit and a laptop. How are these things the same/different? Establish that the plant and the animal are alive but the rest are not. Have the other objects ever been alive? Which ones? Why are they no longer alive? Introduce the idea that some objects were alive but have been changed/manufactured, such as a wooden chair. 2. Sort some pictures, as a group, into ‘alive’, ‘not alive’ and ‘used to be alive’. 1. Go on a ‘living things’ hunt, outside, in the playground and the field/local environment. (Ensure that all children understand the need to respect the living things in their environment and do not pick the flowers/plants or unnecessarily disturb any animals. All animals need to be carefully returned to their original place, if moved, after photographing.) 2. Photograph living things and return to the classroom to draw pictures of some of the living things/print the photographs and label. Play 20 questions. Teacher to select a picture from the starter and hide it from the class. Children to ask up to 20 questions to guess what the picture is. Encourage children to use questions, such as ‘Are you alive?’, ‘Have you ever been alive?’, ‘Are you manufactured?’, etc. Sort according to a given criteria, identify and discuss similarities and differences, identify things that are alive, have been alive and were never alive.