# Living Creatures: Exploring their Characteristics

## Overview

In this chapter, students explore the differences between living and non-living things, understand the common characteristics of living beings, and study life cycles of plants and animals. Through observations, experiments, and activities, students learn about movement, growth, nutrition, respiration, excretion, response to stimuli, reproduction, and death as the defining features of life. The chapter also explores the life cycles of a plant, mosquito, and frog.

## Key Topics Covered

### 1. Living and Non-living Things

* **Observation and Classification**: Students are asked to list and classify objects around them into living and non-living based on features like movement, growth, and response.
* **Defining Characteristics**:

* Living things move, grow, need food, breathe, excrete waste, respond to stimuli, reproduce, and eventually die.
* Non-living things lack one or more of these features.

### 2. Movement and Growth in Living Beings

* **Movement**: Not all movement means life—cars move but aren’t living. Plants also move (e.g., opening flowers, climbers, insectivorous plants like *Drosera*).
* **Growth**: All living beings grow. A child outgrows clothes; plants increase in size.
* **Nutrition**: Essential for growth. All living beings require food to grow and stay healthy.

### 3. Respiration and Excretion

* **Breathing and Respiration**: All living beings breathe (including plants via stomata) and respire to produce energy.
* **Excretion**: Removal of waste materials such as sweat and urine in animals, and water/mineral excretion in plants (e.g., droplets on grass leaves).

### 4. Response to Stimuli

* **Stimuli and Response**: Living beings respond to changes like heat, touch, and light.
* **Plant Response**: *Touch-me-not* folds when touched, *Amla* folds leaves at night—examples of plant responses.

### 5. Reproduction and Death

* **Reproduction**: Essential for the continuation of life—living beings produce their own kind.
* **Death**: When a living organism no longer shows the essential features of life, it is said to be dead.

### 6. Seed Germination

* **Essential Conditions**: Seeds need water, air, and suitable temperature to germinate. Sunlight is not always necessary for germination but important for later growth.
* **Activity-Based Learning**: Through experiments with pots placed in different conditions, students explore the importance of each factor.


### 7. Growth and Movement in Plants

* **Experiment**: Shows that plant shoots grow toward sunlight (positive phototropism) and roots grow downward (positive geotropism).
* **Key Conclusion**:

* Shoots always grow upwards (toward light).
* Roots always grow downwards (toward gravity).

### 8. Life Cycle of a Plant

* **Stages**:

1. Seed germination
2. Seedling formation
3. Leaf development
4. Flowering
5. Fruit formation
6. Seed dispersal and new growth
* **Cycle**: Continues with the germination of new seeds from the fruit.

### 9. Life Cycle of a Mosquito

* **Stages**:

1. Egg
2. Larva (lives in water, wriggling movement)
3. Pupa (immobile, water-dwelling)
4. Adult mosquito
* **Breeding**: Mosquitoes lay eggs on stagnant water. Larvae and pupae rise to the water surface for air.
* **Control Measures**: Avoid water stagnation, use kerosene oil to block air.

### 10. Life Cycle of a Frog

* **Stages**:

1. Spawn (egg clusters)
2. Embryo
3. Tadpole (tail, no legs)
4. Tadpole with legs
5. Froglet
6. Adult frog
* **Transformation**: From aquatic tadpole to land-dwelling adult. Tail disappears, legs strengthen.

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## New Terms and Simple Definitions

| Term | Definition |
| ------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Living | Things that move, grow, eat, breathe, respond, reproduce and die. |
| Non-living | Things that do not show all the characteristics of life. |
| Germination | Process by which a seed starts growing into a new plant. |
| Respiration | Process of taking in oxygen and releasing energy from food. |
| Excretion | Removal of waste materials from the body. |
| Reproduction | Ability to produce offspring of the same kind. |
| Stimulus | Any change in the surroundings that causes a response. |
| Larva | A young stage of an insect that looks different from the adult. |
| Pupa | A resting stage in the insect life cycle between larva and adult. |
| Tadpole | A young stage in the frog's life with a tail and no legs. |
| Froglet | A young frog with legs and a short tail. |

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## Practice Questions

### Easy (3)

1. What is one main difference between living and non-living things?
**Answer**: Living things grow, non-living things do not.

2. Name two things plants need to germinate.
**Answer**: Water and air.

3. What does a tadpole grow into?
**Answer**: A froglet, and then an adult frog.

### Medium (2)

4. Why do mosquito larvae come to the surface of water?
**Answer**: To breathe air.

5. How can you say a seed is a living thing?
**Answer**: Because it can grow and develop into a new plant under the right conditions.

### Difficult (3)

6. Describe one way plants respond to stimuli.
**Answer**: *Touch-me-not* plant folds its leaves when touched.

7. What happens to the shoot and root when a plant is placed in light from one side only?
**Answer**: Shoot grows toward the light; root grows downward.

8. Why is reproduction important for living beings?
**Answer**: It ensures the continuity of life by producing new individuals.

### Very Difficult (2)

9. Explain how the life cycle of a mosquito is different from that of a frog.
**Answer**: Mosquito has four distinct stages (egg, larva, pupa, adult), while frog stages include egg, tadpole, froglet, and adult with transformation in body and habitat.

10. A plant has moist soil, air, and light but does not germinate. What could be the reason?
**Answer**: It may be because the temperature is not suitable for germination or the seed is damaged.

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