Living things and Non-living Things

We see many things in our surroundings. Everything that we see can be categorized into two groups – living things and non-living things. All animals and plants including us are living things. The pencil we write with, the book we read, the toys we play with are all non-living things.

All livings thing displays the following characteristics of life

Living thing need food

Living things need food to obtain energy, to grow and to stay healthy. Plants make their own food by the process of photosynthesis. Animal get their food from plants and other animal.

Living things breathe

All living things need to breathe. Different animals use different organ to breathe for example some animal use their nose, fishes uses their gills and worms use their skin. We breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide through our nose. Plants breathe through opening present in their leaves called stomata.

Living things grow and develop

When living thing eats they receive energy which helps them in their growth. Living things grow from smaller to larger and finally become adult. We human being born and grow into adults. Seed grows into baby plant and finally into big plant or tree.

Living things die

All living thing grow and become old and finally die.

Living things move

All living things show some sort of movements. They can move their body part .Plant usually do not move from one place to another but can move their parts. For example, they move its root downward to obtain water and mineral nutrients from soil and the shoot upward for sunlight.  All living show internal movement and some living things show external movement too such as walking, jumping, flying, swimming etc.

Living things feel

Living things react to changes in their environment. They usually respond to touch, light, heat, cold and sound etc.

Living things reproduce

All living things produce new organism of its kind. Some animals produce babies and some lay eggs. Plants mainly reproduce through seeds which can germinate in suitable condition and grow into new plants.

Note: -To be called living thing, particular thing should have all above characteristics. For example car show few characteristics of living things such as it need fuel for energy and can move from one place to another but it is not a living thing as it does not have other characteristics of living things.