This week, Year 2 took their learning outside as part of our Science topic on living things. We have been investigating how to identify whether something is alive, once alive, or never been alive.

To begin our learning, we discussed what makes something alive. The children shared fantastic ideas, explaining that living things can grow, move, breathe, need food and water, and have offspring. We then became scientists and headed out onto the school field to see what evidence we could find.

Armed with our observation skills, we carefully explored the outdoor environment and searched for a variety of natural and man-made objects. The children were excited to discover many different items, including sticks, leaves, dead leaves, pinecones, an acorn, grass, a bird, a ball, a crisp packet and even a space hopper! The children then used the iPads to take photos of the items that they had found. 

As we collected our findings, the children discussed their ideas with their partners and considered where each item might belong. There were some excellent scientific conversations as the children explained their thinking and challenged each other’s ideas. One of the most interesting discussions was about leaves and sticks. Although these are no longer living, the children recognised that they came from trees and were therefore once alive.

We then went back to the classroom and categorised these items into ‘alive’, ‘once alive’ and ‘never alive’.