• Collection of things that are alive such as living plants, jars containing live insects or worms, any small animals (fish, lizards, birds, mice), a person (student, teacher, etc.), photographs of any plants or animals
• Collection of objects that are not alive, such as rocks, dirt, coins, water, a wind-up toy (to show that not all moving things are alive) 
• Two hula hoops, two large pieces of paper with circles drawn on them or some other means of marking two spaces
• 2 labels: Alive, Not Alive
• Magnifying glasses (optional)

The teacher should collect all of the materials and create the labels the day before. If having a collection for each group is not feasible, place one collection on a table for children to explore in small groups, that they can later discuss as a class.

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Procedure

1. Show the students an object that is a living thing. Ask the students whether they think it is alive or not. How they can tell? Ask the students to look at some of the other students in the class and explain how they can tell that the other students are alive. What are some of the things the students do that their pets also do. Have the students list some of the characteristics they have observed are shared by all living things.
2. Break the class into small groups and give each group a collection of objects, some alive and some not alive, that are common to their experience of living in South Carolina, or photographs of some of these objects. Try to use as many real tactile objects as possible (plants, insects, pets, toys, coins, rocks, etc). Let the children spend some time examining the materials. Encourage the children to use the senses of touch, sight, hearing and smell to observe the differences in the objects.
3. After the students have had a chance to examine the collection of objects, ask them to sort the objects as to whether they are alive or not alive at their tables. Encourage children to discuss why they classified each object as alive or not alive.
4. When they have finished, place two hula-hoops, or other marking objects, on the floor side by side. Inside each hula-hoop place a label "alive" and "not alive".
5. Ask a volunteer from each group to bring an object from their collection and place the object in the correct hula-hoop. Have the student explain why they classified the object as they did. What characteristics did they look for when sorting the objects? The teacher will record the students’ responses on a chart.
6. When complete, have the children review their observations and summarize the basic characteristics that determine whether something is alive or not

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Follow-up Questions

• Have students examine a drop of pond water under a microscope and then pose the question, "Are there living things in the water?".
• Are fossils living things? Have students use plaster of paris to create imprints of their hands or of rubber animal tracks (if available) to consider how fossils are the imprints of living things, but are not actually living things.