Living/ Nonliving Worm Investigation

Since I was pretty much the worst blogger ever last year, I decided to finally share one of our favorite science units.  During our study of life science, we focused on the difference between living and nonliving things. 

We started by learning what living things do, need and are.  We sang a silly song to the tune of "London Bridges" to help us remember.  "Living things can grow and change, grow and change, grow and change.  Living things can grow and change and they reproduce!" (We used a loud, deep, deep voice to yell "reproduce" at the end of the song.  They loved it!)

We did this living/nonliving sort together during a whole group lesson.  Then, the cards and pocket chart were left in a science sorting center for students to work on independently.

 

Here is a peek at what our Focus Wall looked like during our study.

 



Once the students had grasped the concepts of living and nonliving we put their new knowledge to the test with a very exciting science investigation... Gummy worms vs. Earthworms!

 

I had students use this little recording sheet as we set out to prove our hypothesis that earthworms are living and gummy worms are nonliving.

We described how each type of worm looks and feels.

 

 We measured and compared both worms.

They had a blast!  They were so cute using their new vocabulary while talking to one another.  This was one of our favorite activities of the year!  While I had a hard time actually touching the worms, the kids were all about it!

You can grab my Living vs. Nonliving packet HERE.