Look at this little snail and this toy car. Which one is alive? What do you think the living one can do that the toy never can?

Our question today: what can a living thing do that a toy or other object never can? Whisper one idea to your partner.

Your group will look at one place, then swap and look at the other. At each place, watch the living thing beside the object. Notice something real you can see now: damp soil or a green stem beside a dry paper leaf, or feelers, legs or a shell beside a still toy. Stay gentle. Use quiet eyes and quiet hands. If you are in the watching ring, listen for your name and share what you notice.

Help sort these action cards into two piles: Living things can… or Needs a person… Listen as each card is read, then call out which pile it belongs in.

On your Investigation Journal page, draw or write one living thing and one object you watched. Record one clear difference: what the living one does that the object never does.