1st Grade Science

In science we have begun learning about living and nonliving things.  We have talked about 4 main characteristics of living things:  they have basic needs (like air, water, food), they can move or react to changes, they can make new offspring, and they have a cycle of birth, growth, and death.  The surprising thing for the students (and many adults) is that in science when we use the term living to classify things, we include things that were once living or came from living things (like a log, feather, or dead bug).  Nonliving things don't have all of those characteristics (although they may have some).  Nonliving means things that are not alive and never were.  This led to many interesting discussions about fire (nonliving, but does need air and can grow larger) and the sun (nonliving, but can move) and things like a banana (which counts as a living thing because it came from a banana tree).  We put together some pictures of living and nonliving things and students wrote about them on their blogs.  Ask your child to tell you whether some things around your home would be classified as living or nonliving.

We are starting to do research on animals next.  We brainstormed a list of things we might want to find out about animals today and students chose the one they want to learn more about.  We have everything from dogs and cats to cockroaches and the king cobra!  Soon your child should be able to tell you some new things they are learning as we research.