1. What Characteristics do Living things Share?
Examine the toy with your group. Write the following questions and answer them.
1. What living characteristics does the toy have?
2. What non living characteristics does the toy have?
3. Is the toy living or non living? Give specific examples to support what you decide.

2. Characteristics All Living Organisms Share

3. Obtain and Use Resources for Energy Food, oxygen, and water, are resources that provide energy to live.
Autotrophs make their own food through photosynthesis.
Heterotrophs get their food from other plants and animals.
Energy is released from food through respiration (it's a chemical process in cells) .

4. Respond to Stimuli Stimulus- a change in surroundings
that cause a reaction
Examples- light, temperature, sound, amount of water, space, amounts and types of food, other organisms
Response- reaction to stimulus
Ex: A pond dries up so deer migrate to another area to find water. Stimulus: The pond dries up. Response: The deer migrate.
What is the stimulus and response for each picture on the left?
Write your own example. Identify the stimulus and response.

5. Reproduce
Asexual Reproduction- process involving 1 parent (offspring are identical to parent)
Picture A: leaves and stems from a parent plant before it begins to reproduce. Picture B: the plant after it begins reproducing into a new plant.
Sexual Reproduction- process that involves 2 parents (offspring have characteristics of both parents)

6. Grow and Develop
Growth- process of growing larger. Ex: The plant grew 3 inches in one week.
Development- process of growing more complex. Ex: The baby’s muscles have developed enough for him to crawl.
Growth and development require energy.
Happens in cells; all living things are made of cells.