Nonliving objects: Non-living thing – Definition and Examples

Living and Nonliving Things – SuperSTAAR

TEKS Objective

The student is expected to sort and classify living and nonliving things based upon whether or not they have basic needs and produce offspring.

Essential Understanding

The student knows that the living environment is composed of relationships between organisms and the life cycles that occur.

Science Background

Characteristics of Living Organisms: University of Leicester (website) – Overview created for elementary teachers about the characteristics that most biologists accept as being common to all living things.

Characteristics of Living Organisms

University of Leicester, www.le.ac.uk

Wildlife’s Requirements for Survival: Texas Parks and Wildlife (PDF) – General information about the three basic things that all animals need to survive: food, water and shelter.

Wildlife’s Requirements for Survival

Texas Parks and Wildlife, www. tpwd.state.tx.us

Signature Lesson

Living and Non-Living: Kindergarten, Kindergarten (website) – Use a downloadable power point to help students distinguish living versus non-living things.  The website providers several student worksheets as downloadable PDF’s.

Living and Non-Living

Kindergarten, Kindergarten, www.kindergartenkindergarten.com

• Supporting Lessons
• Extensions
• Assessment Ideas
• Literature Connections
• Related
  TEKS
• Additional Resources

Supporting Lessons

Get a Life – Bottle Biology: Annenberg Media (website) – Students test their ideas about what is living and what is non-living by creating tiny habitats strung together as a necklace.

Get a Life: Bottle Biology

Annenberg Media, www.learner.org

An Authentic Lesson on Living and Non-living Things: Bright Hub (website) – Students discuss, sort and classify living organisms and non-living objects based on their properties.

An Authentic Lesson on Living and Non-living Things

Bright Hub, www.brighthub.com

Elaboration Lessons and Extensions

Animals’ Needs: BioEd Online (website) – Observe a worm model and a live worm, create worm terrariums, and observe worms over time.

Animals’ Needs

BioEd Online, www.bioedonline.org

Science Projects for Second Grade: Living and Non-Living Guide: Bright Hub (website) – Students use their notebooks to find and record observations of living organisms and nonliving objects.

Living and Non-Living Guide

Bright Hub, www.brighthub.com

Websites for “What Are Living and Nonliving Things?” SciLinks (website) – Links to many lessons that teach core concepts such as why living things need air, water, soil, and light, and what happens if living organisms do not get these things.

Websites for “What Are Living and Nonliving Things?”

SciLinks, www. scilinks.org

Assessment Ideas

Living and Non-living Things Worksheets: Have Fun Teaching (PDF) – Have students cut out and sort images of common living and nonliving things.

Living and Non-living Things Worksheet

Have Fun Teaching, www.havefunteaching.com

Resources and the Environment – Assessments: BioEd Online (website) – Assessment activity for use before and after teaching a unit about resources and the environment, focusing on resources and the environment and designed to evaluate student’s knowledge of the origins of natural and designed resources.

Resources and the Environment: Assessments

BioEd Online, www.bioedonline.org

Literature Connections

The Rabbit Handbook. Parker, Karen (ISBN-13: 978-0764142536)

The Velveteen Rabbit. Williams-Bianco, Margery (ISBN-13: 978-0761458487)

Is It Living or Nonliving? Rissman, Rebecca (ISBN-13: 978-1432922726)

What is a Living Thing? Kalman, Bobbie (ISBN-13: 978-0865058910)

I am a Living Thing. Kalman, Bobbie (ISBN-13: 978-0778732532)

Additional Resources

Ourselves: BBC Bitesize (website) – In this game students determine if the objects on the screen are living or non-living.

Ourselves

BBC Bitesize, www.bbc.co.uk

Living and Non Living Things: Mixbook (website) – This short interactive book may be used to introduce the concept of living organisms and non-living objects.

Living and Non Living Things

Mixbook, www.mixbook.com

Living and Non-living Things: MillePrime Education Services e-learning for Primary Science (website) – Explanation of concepts related to living and non-living things on a primary level.

Living and Non-Living Things

MillePrime Education Services, www.milleprime.com.sg

Is it Alive? Ohio Department of Education (PDF) – Students identify characteristics of living and non-living things, and use vocabulary to describe things with which they interact on a daily basis.

Is it Alive?

Ohio Department of Education, www.ims.ode.state.oh.us

Non-living Things: Classification and Features

• Written By
  Varsha
• Last Modified 11-10-2022

Non-living things: We live on a planet made up of living and non-living things. While living things are defined as things that have life, anything that is not alive is considered non-living things. They lack cells and development and exhibit no movement. Non-living things do not breathe and do not require food for energy. Some examples of non-living things include stones, pens, books, bicycles, bottles, and so on.

Unlike living things, non-living things do not have a life span. They don’t need food. They don’t even respire. They do not undergo any metabolism for catabolic or anabolic reactions. The non-living things do not grow or reproduce. Our environment is made up of living and non-living things. Read the article below to know more details about non-living things.

Given below is a table that will define Non-living things in the simplest way.

Non-living Things Classification

Things without life can be further classified into two categories, and they are:

1. Natural Non-Living Things
2. Man-made Non-Living Things

Below is a table that lists the differences between natural and man-made artificial things.

Natural and Man-made Non-Living Things Chart

Non-Living Things Examples

We have provided some examples of man-made things below:

1. Chair
2. Table
3. Bed
4. Book
5. Rock
6. Water Bottle
7. News Paper
8. Pencil
9. Pen
10. Watch
11. Clock
12. Clothes
13. Toys
14. Glass
15. Mobile Phone
16. Photos
17. Sofa
18. Charger
19. Magazine
20. Eraser

Non-Living Things Characteristics

The characteristics of man-made things are listed below:

1. They are lifeless and do not have cells.
2. Artificial things don’t have protoplasm; thus, no life.
3. They do not possess any metabolic activities.
4. These things cannot die.
5. There are no processes of reproduction, nutrition, or excretion in them.
6. They don’t move.
7. They do not breathe.
8. These things do not obtain or use energy.
9. Man-made things do not respond to the environment.
10. They cannot grow and develop.
11. They do not adapt to their environment.
12. These things are not sensitive.
13. They have no lifespan.
14. They do not respond to stimuli.

Difference Between Living and Non-living Things

To easily understand the difference between living and non-living things, scientists have come up with necessary traits that classify them. So, anything that has life is considered a living being. Continue reading to know more about it.

Origin

Natural things are sourced from nature, whereas man-made things go through rigorous processing to mould the material to suit their intended purpose.

Durability

Man-made things are more durable than their natural counterparts. Natural things have a shorter lifespan as these things were once alive and gradually perish over time.

We have discussed man-made things, their properties, detailed classifications, non-living things’ examples, characteristics, and how they are different from living things. Non-living entities are lifeless; they do not reproduce, grow, or develop. They are not dependent on water, food, or air. They do not respire, also have no life span, and are immortal.

FAQs on Non-Living Things

Q.1: What are 5 man-made things?
Ans: The five man-made things are: rock, table, chair, glass, and pen.

Q.2: Is Earth living or non-living?
Ans: Earth is a living planet as it behaves in significant ways like a living organism.

Q.3: What are the characteristics of non-living things?
Ans: Non-living things are things without life. They lack cells and development and exhibit no movement.

Q.4: Is water a non-living thing?
Ans: Yes. Water doesn’t have any characteristics of living things. Hence, it is a non-living element.

Q.5: What are the types of non-living things?
Ans: There are two types of non-living things: natural and man-made.

Living and non-living nature, its objects

Look around. How beautiful! Gentle sun, blue sky, clear air. Nature decorates our world, makes it happier. Have you ever wondered what nature is?

Nature is everything that surrounds us, but it is NOT created by human hands: forests and meadows, sun and clouds, rain and wind, rivers and lakes, mountains and plains, birds, fish, animals, even man himself belongs to nature.

Nature is divided into living and non-living.

Wildlife: animals (including animals, birds, fish, even worms and microbes), plants, fungi, humans.

Inanimate nature: sun, space objects, sand, soil, stones, wind, water.

Signs of wildlife:

All objects of wildlife:

– grow,
– feed,
– breathe,
– give offspring,
and they are also born and die.

In inanimate nature, the opposite is true. Its objects are not able to grow, eat, breathe and give offspring. Bodies of inanimate nature do not die, but are destroyed or pass into another state (example: ice melts and becomes liquid).

How to distinguish which nature this or that object belongs to?

Let’s try together.

What kind of nature is the sunflower a part of? A sunflower is born – a sprout hatches from a seed. The sprout is growing. The roots take nutrients from the ground, and the leaves take carbon dioxide from the air – the sunflower feeds. The plant breathes by absorbing oxygen from the air. Sunflower gives seeds (seeds) – so it multiplies. In autumn it dries up and dies. Conclusion: sunflower is part of nature.

A person is born, grows, eats, breathes, has children, dies, so we can also be safely attributed to living nature. Man is part of nature.

Moon, Sun, spring, stones do not grow, do not feed, do not breathe, do not give offspring, so these are bodies of inanimate nature.

Snowman, house, cars are made by human hands and do not belong to nature.

But there are also bodies of inanimate nature that have individual features of living organisms.

For example, crystals are born, grow, break down (die).
A river is born from the melting of a glacier, grows when small rivers flow into it, it dies when it flows into the sea.
Iceberg is born, grows, moves, dies (melts in warm seas).
The volcano is born, grows, dies with the cessation of eruptions.

But they all DO NOT eat, DO NOT breathe and DO NOT reproduce.

If you break a piece of chalk in half, you get 2 pieces of chalk. Chalk remained chalk. Chalk is an inanimate object. If you break a tree or split a butterfly into pieces, they will die, because a tree and a butterfly are living things.

In elementary school there are difficulties in determining whether an object belongs not only to animate and inanimate nature, but also to nature in general. Can you complete the task correctly?

Find a group in which all objects belong to inanimate nature:

a) sun, water, earth, stones.
b) moon, air, moon rover, stars.
c) ice, earth, water, ship.

The correct answer is a). The lunar rover and the ship do not belong to inanimate nature, they do not belong to any nature, because they were created by human hands.

Connection of animate and inanimate nature

Undoubtedly, animate and inanimate nature are interconnected. Let’s make sure together.

For example, the SUN: without heat and sunlight, neither man, nor plants, nor birds, nor even fish can live.

We continue to make sure further. WATER: without it, all living things will die. Neither man nor animals can live without water, plants will also dry up and die.

We continue. AIR. All living things breathe. And no one can live without it.

And finally, FOOD. A person eats various objects of wildlife: plants, fungi and products that he receives from animals.

On the other hand, living organisms also invariably influence objects of inanimate nature. So, microorganisms, fish and animals that live in water maintain its chemical composition; plants, dying and rotting, saturate the soil with microelements.

Based on our observations, we conclude that our whole life is closely connected with nature.

A person learns a lot from nature and even creates objects that look like natural objects. For example, watching a dragonfly, a man created a helicopter, and birds inspired the creation of an airplane. In every house there is an artificial sun – this is a lamp.

Conclusion

Nature is everything that surrounds us and is not made by human hands. Nature has two forms: living nature and inanimate nature. Living and inanimate nature are closely related, because all living things breathe air, all living things drink water, a person cannot live without food, and animals and plants give us food. Nature is our home. A person must protect and protect it, use natural resources wisely.

Inanimate objects: examples | Zeleny tatarstan

There are so many objects of inanimate nature and they are so diverse that one science simply cannot study them all. Several sciences are involved in this at once: chemistry, physics, geology, hydrography, astronomy, etc.

According to one of the existing classifications, all objects of inanimate nature are divided into three large groups:

Solid bodies . This includes all rocks, minerals, substances that make up the soil, glaciers and icebergs, planets. These are stones and deposits of gold, rocks and diamonds, the Sun and the Moon, comets and asteroids, snowflakes and hail, grains of sand and crystal.
These objects have a clear shape, they do not need food, they do not breathe and do not grow.

Liquid bodies are all inanimate objects that are in a state of fluidity and do not have a definite shape. For example, dew and raindrops, fog and clouds, volcanic lava and a river.
All these types of objects of inanimate nature are closely interconnected with other bodies, but they also do not need food, respiration and are not capable of reproduction.

Gaseous bodies – all substances consisting of gases: air masses, water vapor, stars. The atmosphere of our planet is the largest object of inanimate nature, which, if it changes, is only under the influence of the environment. But at the same time it does not feed, does not grow, does not multiply. However, it is air that is vital for life.
What objects of inanimate nature are necessary for life

We have already mentioned that life on our planet is impossible without objects of inanimate nature. Of all the abundance for the existence of wildlife, the following bodies of inanimate nature are of particular importance:

Soil. It took several billion years before the soil began to have the properties that allowed the emergence of plants. It is the soil that connects the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere, the most important physical and chemical reactions take place in the soil: obsolete plants and animals decompose, transform into minerals. The soil also protects living organisms from toxins by neutralizing toxic substances.
Air is an essential substance for life, as all living things breathe. And plants need air not only for breathing, but also for the formation of nutrients.
Water is the basis of the foundations and the root cause of the origin of life on Earth. All living organisms need water, for some it is a habitat (fish, marine animals, algae), for others it is a source of nutrition (plants), for others it is the most important component of the nutritional scheme (animals, plants).