Page 6 - LIFE_&_LIVING_BK4_4thPages.indd

Activity 1 Tuning in: Characteristics of living things

Time: 60 minutes
Objectives
By the end of this activity the learners should be able to :
• Know and identify living and non-living things
Resources • Sort things into living and non-living categories

• An A3 size “What
Make Things Alive?” Teacher guidelines
learner task sheet
(one per group) 1. Organize learners into groups of 3–5 per group. Give each
• two different group a pencil crayon.
coloured pencil
crayons
• data projector and 2. Distribute to each group a “What Makes Things Alive?”
computer learner task sheet.

3. Instruct learners to think and write on the left hand side of
the “What Make Things Alive?” sheet what they think makes
something alive? Allocate 10 minutes to this.

Useful Websites 4. Stop the learners and have a brief discussion of what
characteristics they have thought of in their groups. Tell
https://www.youtube. learners that after the movie, they may have some more
com/watch?
v=p51FiPO2_kQ characteristics to add to their task sheet.

5. Show the 5-minute video clip: “Introduction to the
characteristics of life”

The operational 6. Give the learners a second pencil crayon. Ask learners to
definition of life: write on the right hand side of the “What Makes Things
In an organism, a Alive?” sheet the characteristics they have learnt about in the
condition in which video. Allocate 10 minutes to this.
there is reproduction,
growth, development,
metabolism, use of 7. Ask one group to present their sheet to the class. Then
energy, excretion, conduct a whole class discussion to reach a consensus on
response to stimuli what the characteristics of life are.
and composition
of cells
8. Have the learners write down in their books the
characteristics of life that the class has collaboratively
decided on.

6 Resource Toolkit for Intermediate Phase

LIFE_&_LIVING_BK4_4thPages.indd 6 2016/04/08 6:46 PM