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The Variety of Life

• Living things feed, grow, move, reproduce, respire, get rid of waste and use senses.
• Living things need energy from food.
• Energy is released from food during respiration.
• Plants use sunlight to make food by photosynthesis.
• Living things can be put into groups that have similar features.
• Plants and animals of one kind are called a species.
• Animals with backbones are called vertebrates, those without are called invertebrates.
• Some plants make seeds to reproduce, others make spores.
• Water is carried around plants in tubes called xylem.
• Cells are made up of a membrane, cytoplasm and a nucleus.
• Plants use chloroplasts to trap light energy for photosynthesis.
• Some cells have changed their shape to do special jobs.
• The main parts of the human body.
• The main parts of a flowering plant.

Every part of the world is teeming with life - from the air to the land, the sea to the rivers, the volcanos to the poles! The variety of life on our planet is wide and exciting! We are going to learn all about some of the life on earth during this section.

The 7 life processes are what all living organisms do. You must learn these for the exam. A good way of doing this is remembering the phrase "Mrs Gren"

 

M	Movement	Animals move to find food and away from predators. Plants move towards light.
R	Reproduction	Both animals and plants reproduce to make their species carry on.
S	Sensitivity	Animals and plants are sensitive to light.
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G	Growth	Animals grow larger and stronger which helps them hunt better.
R	Respiration	Animals and plants must turn their food into energy.
E	Excretion	Waste products must be excreted from plants and animals.
N	Nutrition	Animals need food for respiration and plants need minerals from the soil.

All living things can be split into groups. These groups can be further split because of features shared by some living creatures. i.e. we can split living things up into plants and animals. Plants make their own food by trapping the suns energy in a chemical reaction called photosynthesis. Animals get their food by eating plants or other animals.

Animal Groups

Animals can be split into 2 main groups       

• invertebrates - no backbone
• vertebrates - have a backbone

We looked further at these groups and in particular at vertebrates splitting them into 5 main categories:- mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians - and looked at their group characteristics that we use to put them into these groups.

We also look at plants and break them into groups:- flowering, conifers, ferns and moss. One of the practicals we do is to germinate beans and yet another is to cut up a bean and see what is inside!

We also learn that all living things are made up from tiny 'building blocks' we call cells. All cells have a nucleus to control it, a cell membrane that surrounds it, and cytoplasm which is like a jelly where the chemical reactions happen. Plant cells also have a cell wall, to make the cell rigid, a large vacuole and green chloroplasts where photosynthesis happens.

animal cell	plant cell

• Plan an investigation to find out if seeds are living or not.
• Make a table of differences between plants and animals.
• Name the main groups of invertebrates, vertebrates and plants.
• List the main features of each group of invertebrates, vertebrates and plants.
• Put an animal or plant into the correct group.
• Cut open a seed and find the different parts.
• Plan an investigation to find out which leaves lose most water.
• Use the following words correctly: Cell, Tissue, Organ, System.
• Work out the actual size of a cell.
• Make a slide of some onion skin.
• Use a microscope to look at cells.
• On a diagram, label the parts of the microscope.
• Cut and stick together the main organs of the human body.
• Plan an investigation to get the most dye out of a piece of beetroot.