Students begin by creating interactive notebook pages that serve as personal anchor charts, so they can remember how to tell living and non-living things apart. Next, the class works together to observe and sort real-life objects. Then the students divide into groups to investigate for themselves. Finally, in the assessment, students use the same techniques on their own.

A 5-day lesson plan is included. Beyond the standards, this unit also begins to teach the scientific method slowly, by showing students exactly how to observe, which is the first step in the process. After making observations, students are guided to write statements using sentence frames.

What's included:
- A 5-day lesson plan
- Interactive notebook pages that work as personal anchor charts
- Class and small-group observation activities
- An individual assessment
- Sentence frames for writing statements about living and non-living things

Perfect for: Life science lessons; Interactive science notebooks; Teaching students how to observe