🔬 Living or Not? A Backyard Hunt
¿Vivo o no vivo? Una búsqueda en el patio
🔬 Science
K-LS1-1SL.K.1
Objective: Child observes objects outdoors and sorts them into living and non-living, naming what living things need (food, water, air, sunlight).
🧺 Materials
- a basket or bag
- a few objects from home (a rock, a leaf, a toy, a flower)
- outdoor space or a window
📋 Instructions (parent)
- Go outside or look out a window together and slowly point to different things.
- For each thing, ask if it is living or not living, and why your child thinks so.
- Collect a few safe small things in the basket (a leaf, a pebble, a flower).
- Make two piles at home: living things and non-living things.
- Talk about what each living thing needs to stay alive: water, food, air, and sunlight.
- Let your child act out being a plant that drinks water and reaches for the sun.
➕ Extension ideas
- Draw your favorite living thing and label what it needs.
- Find a living thing in a book and a non-living thing on the same page.
🗣️ Parent script — say it in Spanish
Español
Vamos a buscar cosas vivas y cosas que no están vivas. Una cosa viva crece, come y necesita agua y aire. ¿Puedes encontrar algo vivo en el patio? ¡Vamos a descubrirlo juntos!
💬 Conversation prompts
- ¿Esta cosa está viva o no está viva?
- ¿Cómo sabes que está viva?
- ¿Qué necesita un perrito para vivir?
- ¿Las plantas necesitan agua, como tú?
- ¿Qué cosa viva te gusta más?
🔑 Vocabulary
- vivo — alive
- planta — plant
- animal — animal
- agua — water
- comida — food
- aire — air
- crecer — to grow
Other ways to do it
⚡ 5-minute version
Name three living things and three non-living things you can see right now from where you sit.
🚗 Car version
Play 'I spy something living' out the car window and take turns guessing.
😴 No-energy version
Cuddle on the couch and sort toys versus a houseplant or pet into living and not living.
🎯 California standards covered
| K-LS1-1 | What Living Things Need “I can tell what plants and animals need to live, like food and water.” |
| SL.K.1 | Taking Part in Conversations “I can take turns talking and listening when I have a conversation.” |