Kingdoms of Life

Read aloud Living Things and Nonliving Things by Kevin Kurtz. Students create two columns with headings "Living" and "Nonliving," list attributes of living and nonliving things, and illustrate with accompanying pictures.

Check out plant and animal books from the library on varying reading levels. Students should read one animal and one plant book. They can make a T chart to list characteristics of the animal and the plant that they chose and read about. As time allows, they can discuss similarities and differences they see between the two.

Write explanatory text describing the characteristics of animals and plants, using transitional phrases to compare and contrast.

Create a brochure or a slideshow describing the six kingdoms of life. For each kingdom, include the type and number of cells, the method of obtaining food, examples of organisms, and a picture or diagram.

Using magazines, students create a collection of pictures of items.  Sort them into three categories: Living, Nonliving, Dead. Count items and tell how many in each category, and how many more in one category than another.

Using this chart, look at the identified number of plant species and the estimated number of plant species. How many more plant species are yet to be discovered? Do the same for the other kingdoms of life.

Use ASU's Building Blocks of Life site. Given that an adult human body contains 37.2 trillion cells, suppose that we could place all of these cells end to end. Figure out how many times that line of cells from one human body would circle the earth.

• All animals need food in order to live and grow. They obtain their food from plants or from other animals. Plants need water and light to live and grow.

• Examples of observations could include that animals need to take in food, but plants produce their own; the different kinds of food needed by different types of animals; the requirement of plants to have light; and that all living things need water.

Adult plants and animals can have young. In many kinds of animals, parents and the offspring themselves engage in behaviors that help the offspring to survive.

Living and non-living things have different characteristics.

Use chart or Venn diagram to sort objects or pictures into living and not-living items.

Reproduction is essential to the continued existence of every kind of organism. Plants and animals have unique and diverse life cycles.

Emphasis is on macroscopic structures within plant and animal systems.

Some kinds of plants and animals that once lived on Earth are no longer found anywhere.

Scientific genus and species level names indicate a degree of relationship.

Anatomical similarities and differences between various organisms enable the classification of living things.

• Organisms reproduce, either sexually or asexually, and transfer their genetic information to their offspring.

• Living things share certain characteristics that include response to environment, reproduction, energy use, growth and development, life cycles, being made of cells, etc.

• Examples should include both biotic and abiotic items, and should be defended using accepted characteristics of life.

• Within cells, special structures are responsible for particular functions, and the cell membrane forms the boundary that controls what enters and leaves the cell.

• Emphasis is on the cell functioning as a whole system and the primary role of identified parts of the cell, specifically the nucleus, chloroplasts, mitochondria, cell membrane, and cell wall. These are visible with a light microscope.

All living things are made up of cells, which is the smallest unit that can be said to be alive. An organism may consist of one single cell (unicellular) or many different numbers and types of cells (multicellular.)