what can living things do?

Time I think for bit of brainstorming.  We know (thanks to Yousouf) that living things are not dead (even though ‘dead’ things used to be alive).  But what does it actually mean to be alive?

What can living things do?

Nicholas to the rescue.  ‘They can walk and talk,’ he tells us.

And he is right.  To a degree.  We can walk (do you mind if we use the word ‘move’ here?  After all, we can run and hop and skip and jump as well as walk and all of those things mean we move) and talk.  But what about other kinds of living things?  Can all living things walk (move) and talk?

And after a bit of human talk, the consensus was that living things can move but not all living things can talk.  So we will just put ‘move’ on our chart if that’s OK with you.

Moving on.

What else can living things do?  Think about yourself.  When you were born, you were teeny tiny babies and now you are great big grown-up 5 and 6 year olds.  And sometime soon you will be (gasp) s e v e n

‘Living things grow’, Tanisha tells us.  All living things?

Yes, because kittens grow into cats and puppies grow into dogs.  And baby tigers grow into mummy tigers and…..baby dinosaurs grow (grew, surely) into mummy dinosaurs.

Let’s quickly add ‘grow’ to our chart then.

Anything else?

Living things eat.  Cats eat.  Dogs eat.  We eat.

But because some living things don’t actually eat their food, do you mind if we use the word ‘feed’ on the chart? 

Now, take a deep breath.  Don’t let go.  Hang on.  And on…..and think.  What else do living things do?

Breathe…..phew.  Thank goodness!

But because some living things don’t actually breathe in and out like that, do you mind if we use the word ‘respire’ on our chart?  It is a special scientific word that means breathe.

And now think back to when you were a teeny tiny baby.  Where did you come from?

Yes, we all came from our mummy’s tummy (even I came from my mummy’s tummy!!!)  All living things can have babies (although you are right, Emily, not all ladies do have babies).  But because some living things come from eggs (and some don’t even do that!) do you mind if we use the special scientific word ‘reproduce’ on our chart?  It means the same as ‘have babies’.

And here, now, is that chart.

There are in fact a couple more things that living things can do, but we won’t worry too much about them at the moment.  What we have here is pretty much all we’ll need for our next thinking task.