Theme 1: Investigating Living Things

Unit 1: Living things have basic needs

1. Basic needs are stuff that living things must have to stay alive.
(a) Humans & Animals – Food, water, air, shelter
(b) Plants: Air, sunlight, water

2. Humans, animals and plants will die if any one of their basic needs is not met.


Unit 2: Living things undergo life processes

1. Life processes of humans
Humans carry out life processes such as
- breathing through lungs
- excreting and defecating to get rid of waste materials
- responding to stimuli for survival and to protect ourselves from harm
- reproducing by giving birth

2. Bad habits that disturb our life processes
Smoking, drinking alcohol, abusing drugs

3. Life processes of animals
(a) Animals breathe using lungs, gills, moist skin or trachea.

(b) Animals reproduce either by giving birth or by laying eggs.

4. Life processes of plants
(a) Plants respond to stimuli such as light, water, gravity and touch

(b) Flowering plants reproduce by seeds. The flowers develop into fruits containing

seeds. The seeds can grow into new plants.
(c) Some flowering plants can also reproduce from parts of their body such as stems,
leaves and suckers.
(d) Non-flowering plants like ferns and mushrooms reproduce by spores.

Unit 3 Animals and plants protect themselves

1. Animals protect themselves from danger and enemies
(a) Animals have special characteristics to protect themselves.
Tortoise- It has a hard shell
Centipede-It has a venomous sting

(b) Some animals adapt certain behaviour for protection.
Beetle – It pretends to be dead
Pangolin - It rolls up into a tight ball.

2. Animals protect themselves from extreme weather
(a) Animals living in a desert have special ways to overcome the heat and the shortage of water.
The hump of a camel contains fat that can be changed to water
Desert animals are usually active at night when it is cooler.

(b) Animals in the Artic or Antarctic have special ways to keep themselves warm.
Walrus-It has a thick layer of fat
Polar Bear- It has a thick layer of fur
Artic Fox – It has small ears to prevent heat lost.

3. Plants protect themselves
(a) Plants have special characteristics to protect themselves from being eaten by animals.
A pineapple plant has sharp thorns
A jackfruit plant has sticky latex

(b) Plants have special characteristics to protect themselves from extreme weather.
A cactus has small leaves in the form of needles to reduce water loss.
A coconut tree has a flexible stem and divided leaves that can stand strong wind