The natural world, with its vast diversity of living things, both plants and animals, can be an endless source of fascination for young children as they take up opportunities for first-hand exploration and learning. Helping children to become aware of the common life process that all living things share will develop their understanding of our responsibilities towards the environment and other living things.
What do I need to know?
The following information provides you with some of the background knowledge to help you support young children's exploration and investigation. Use this information to help you provide experiences which children can draw on to build their own scientific understanding.
Classification of living things
To help us make sense of the vast diversity of life on earth, scientists have developed a classification system, bringing together living things that share similar characteristics. Within this classification system are members of the plant kingdom and the animal kingdom.
The plant kingdom is divided into five distinct groups: algae, lichens, mosses and liverworts, ferns and horsetails, and seed-bearing plants.
Seed-bearing plants include all the bushes, shrubs, trees and flowering plants we see all around us in gardens, parks, woods and forests.
The animal kingdom splits first into two groupings:
- invertebrates - animals without an internal skeleton
- vertebrates - animals with an internal skeleton.
The invertebrates include all the creatures that are sometimes referred to as 'minibeasts' and includes flatworms, roundworms, sea anemones, jellyfish, sea urchins, coral, earthworms, woodlice, crabs, spiders, insects, squid, snails, slugs and mussels. Vertebrates are divided into five groups: fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals.
Life processes
Although there is such an enormous diversity of living things in the world, all plants and animals share seven essential life processes. These are nutrition, respiration, excretion, movement, growth, reproduction and senses.
- Nutrition Animals gain their nutrition from eating plants or other animals. In contrast, plants use a process called photosynthesis to make their own food, by using energy from sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrate. This process takes place in the leaves and other green parts of the plant.
- Respiration In animals, respiration is the name we give to the process whereby the energy stored in food is released to support all the other life processes. The process of respiration involves taking in oxygen from the air, carrying this oxygen around the body in the blood, and releasing energy from food through a chemical reaction in the cells of the body. During respiration in plants, a chemical reaction breaks down food molecules stored in the cells of the plant to release energy.
- Excretion All living things produce waste materials which they have to dispose of. Waste materials produced by animals include urine and faeces as well as carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a waste product of respiration and passes out of the body when an animal breathes out. The process of respiration in plants produces waste gases which pass out of small pores on the surface of the plant. Deciduous plants also lose waste material every year when their leaves fall.
- Movement Animals move in many different ways, depending on the structure of their bodies. Plants cannot move from place to place because they are fixed in place in the soil by their roots. Instead, their leaves and flowers move in response to external stimuli, such as light.
- Growth Most animals grow until maturity, by which time they have reached their optimum size. Any further growth is then restricted to repairing damaged tissue. In contrast, plants usually continue to get bigger throughout their lives.
- Reproduction Eventually all living things die, but before they do this they produce offspring to ensure the survival of the species. Mammals, the group to which we as humans belong, normally have only small numbers of young and invest a great deal of effort in rearing them. Other animals such as fish and frogs produce very large numbers of young which are then left to 'fend for themselves'. Plants reproduce by making large numbers of seeds, which are spread by a variety of different means.
- Senses Animals use their senses - sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch - to avoid danger and to find food. Different senses are important to different animals - as humans, we rely heavily on our sense of sight. All plants are sensitive to light and gravity while some, including the venus fly trap and the mimosa, also respond to touch.
Investigating
All puffed out
What you need
Lots of space; simple picture books of the human body showing the position of the heart and lungs; stethoscope (the toy stethoscopes in children's doctors' kits work surprisingly well) What to do
- Look at the picture books with the children and help them to identify the different parts of the body.
- Encourage them to sit as still as possible and then ask: What can you feel if you put your hands on your chest and press gently? Can you feel a part of your body that is still moving?
- Encourage them to take a few deep breaths in and out and feel their chests moving up and down.
- Ask them to run, jump or dance energetically for one minute and then stop. What do you notice now about your breathing? Can you feel your heart beating?
- If you have a stethoscope, help the children to use it to hear the sounds of their hearts beating and their lungs breathing.
- If you repeat these bursts of activity several times, you will be able to draw children's attention to the other effects of exercise - getting hotter, going red in the face, sweating and getting tired.
- Talk to the children about the importance of us all taking regular exercise to keep our hearts and lungs healthy.
- Be a good role model to the children!
Sweet and sour
What you need
Citrus fruits - orange, grapefruit, lemon, lime, mandarin, satsuma, clementine; stand magnifier or some hand lenses; chopping board and a sharp knife; tissues
What to do
- Look at the citrus fruits with the children and ask questions about their size, shape, colour, texture and smell.
- Help the children to cut open or peel each of the fruit in turn. Talk about the taste, smell and appearance of the inside of the fruits.
- Use the hand lenses or stand magnifier to look more closely at the inside of the fruits and the outer peel.
- Divide the fruits into small pieces and encourage the children to taste them. Some children will be happy to do this, others will be more cautious - reassure them that they can spit the piece out into a tissue if they don't like it.
- Encourage the children to talk about the different tastes - note down the words they use to describe the flavours.
- Some children may be confident enough to take part in a tasting session - closing their eyes and trying to recognise the fruit from its taste alone.
Further information
- Dorling Kindersley Guide to the Human Body by Richard Walker
- The Little Book of Living Things by Linda Thornton and Pat Brunton (Featherstone Education)
- Hand lenses, stand magnifiers and stethoscopes are available from Reflections on Learning, www.reflectionsonlearning.co.uk
Linda Thornton and Pat Brunton are education consultants with a special interest in science and technology for young children. Contact them at www.alcassociates.co.uk
