This MCQ module is based on: Living and Non-living — Characteristics of Life
TOPIC 35 OF 46
Living and Non-living — Characteristics of Life
🎓 Class 6
Science
CBSE
Theory
Ch 10 — Living Creatures: Exploring Their Characteristics
⏱ ~14 min
🌐 Language: [gtranslate]
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Myaischool Lt Science Assessment
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[myaischool_lt_science_assessment grade_level="class_6" science_domain="biology" difficulty="basic"]
A Morning Walk — Ravi Meets the Living World
One cool morning, Ravi went for a walk in the park with his elder sister Anu. He saw a squirrel dart up a neem tree, ants marching in a line, a bright yellow sunflower turning towards the sun, and a stone sitting quietly beside the path.
"Anu didi," Ravi asked, "the squirrel is alive. The stone is not. But how do we really know? The car is also moving — is it alive too?"
Anu smiled. "Good question, Ravi! Scientists have found seven special signs that all living things share. Let us find them one by one as we walk."
"Prana chalti hai, shwas lete hain, badhte hain aur badalte hain — yahi toh jeevan hai."
(Life breathes, grows, and changes — these are the signs of being alive.) — A common saying.
(Life breathes, grows, and changes — these are the signs of being alive.) — A common saying.
10.1 Living and Non-Living — What is the Difference?
Look around you. Some things — like you, your pet, trees, and birds — are living. Other things — like stones, chairs, cars, and water — are non-living.
At first, telling them apart seems easy. But sometimes it is tricky! A moving car, a flowing river, and a burning candle all look "active" — yet they are not alive. A sleeping cat looks still — yet it is alive.
The Big Rule: A thing is alive only if it shows most of the seven life signs — not just one. A candle flame grows and moves, but it does not breathe, eat food, or make baby flames of its kind.
| Thing | Grows on its own? | Breathes? | Living / Non-Living |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mango tree | Yes | Yes | Living |
| Cow | Yes | Yes | Living |
| Brick wall | No | No | Non-living |
| River water | No | No | Non-living |
| Burning candle | Flame gets smaller | No | Non-living |
| Butterfly | Yes | Yes | Living |
10.2 The Seven Characteristics of Living Things
Let us meet the seven big signs that tell us something is alive.
1. Growth
Every living thing gets bigger from inside. A seed becomes a tall tree; a baby becomes an adult.
2. Movement
Animals walk, swim, or fly. Plants move slowly — leaves turn toward the sun, roots push down.
3. Respiration
Living things take in air (or dissolved oxygen in water) to release energy from their food.
4. Nutrition
Animals eat food. Plants cook their own food using sunlight, water, and air.
5. Reproduction
Living things make young ones like themselves — dogs have puppies, mango trees give mango seeds.
6. Response to Stimuli
Living things feel and react. Touch a "touch-me-not" plant and its leaves fold at once!
7. Excretion
Living things throw out waste that their body does not need — through sweat, urine, or breathing out.
1. Growth — Getting Bigger from Inside
A tiny mustard seed can grow into a plant taller than you. A newborn kitten becomes a full-grown cat in about a year. This change comes from within the body — living things build new parts using the food they eat.
Compare this with a non-living thing. A crystal of salt may grow bigger if more salt is added to it from outside, but it cannot make itself grow. A stone stays the same size for thousands of years.
2. Movement — Motion of Life
Animals move clearly — dogs run, fish swim, birds fly. But do plants move? Yes, they do — just very slowly!
- Roots grow downwards into the soil, searching for water.
- Stems grow upwards, towards the light.
- Sunflowers turn their faces toward the sun during the day.
- The "touch-me-not" plant (Mimosa) folds its leaves the instant we touch it.
Note: A car moves, but only when the driver turns it on. Living things move by themselves — no one has to push them.
3. Respiration — Taking Breath for Energy
Every living cell needs respiration. When we breathe in, we take in oxygen from the air. This oxygen meets the food inside our body, and energy is released — just like a matchstick needs air to burn. When we breathe out, we release carbon dioxide.
Plants also breathe — they take in oxygen through tiny holes in their leaves called stomata. Fishes breathe dissolved oxygen from water using gills. Earthworms breathe through their wet skin!
4. Nutrition — The Need for Food
No living thing can live without food. Food gives the body energy to move, grow, and heal.
- Plants prepare their own food from sunlight, water, and air. This amazing process is called photosynthesis.
- Animals (including humans) cannot make their own food. They must eat plants or other animals.
5. Reproduction — Making New Ones
If living things did not produce young ones, they would all disappear from Earth in one generation! Reproduction means giving birth to young ones of the same kind.
- Hens lay eggs → chicks come out.
- Dogs give birth to puppies.
- A mango seed becomes a new mango tree.
- Even tiny germs multiply by splitting into two!
6. Response to Stimuli — Feeling and Reacting
A stimulus is any change in the surroundings. Living things notice it and react.
| Stimulus | Response |
|---|---|
| Bright light in our eyes | We blink or look away |
| Smell of hot food | Our mouth waters |
| Touching the Mimosa plant | Its leaves fold up |
| Loud sudden sound | A bird flies off |
| Cold outside | We shiver |
7. Excretion — Throwing Out Waste
While our body uses food, some parts are left over as waste. If this waste stays inside, it becomes harmful. So every living thing has a way of removing it.
- Humans remove waste as urine, sweat, and the carbon dioxide we breathe out.
- Plants lose extra water through their leaves (we call this transpiration) and drop old leaves.
Activity 10.1 — The Living / Non-Living Sorting Game L2 Understand
You need: a notebook, a pencil, and a walk around your home or schoolyard.
- Walk slowly and list 15 different things you see.
- For each one, write YES or NO next to these seven signs: grows, moves on its own, breathes, eats, reproduces, responds, excretes.
- Count the YES marks. If most are YES → it is living. If most are NO → it is non-living.
Predict: Where would you put a flowing river? What about an egg that hasn't hatched yet?
Observation: A river moves, but it doesn't grow, breathe, eat, or reproduce — it is non-living. An unhatched egg shows very slow life processes inside — the chick is already growing — so it is living. This game shows that one sign alone is not enough; we must check many.
Activity 10.2 — Watching the Touch-Me-Not Plant L3 Apply
You need: a Mimosa pudica plant (found in many gardens and roadsides in India), your finger, a stopwatch.
- Gently touch one of the leaflets with your finger.
- Observe — the leaflets fold inwards almost at once.
- Measure how long it takes for the plant to open its leaves again.
- Now touch a different leaflet twice in a row. Is the second reaction slower?
Predict: Which life-sign are we seeing in the Mimosa? Does a stone react this way?
Observation: The Mimosa shows response to stimuli — it feels your touch and folds its leaves to protect itself from what might be a grazing animal. A stone cannot do this. The leaves usually reopen in about 10–20 minutes. This is proof that the plant is alive.
Remember: Things that were once alive, like a piece of wood or a dry leaf, are dead — not non-living. Non-living things were never alive in the first place (stone, water, iron).
Competency-Based Questions
Ria placed a dry pea seed, a wet cotton ball, and a small stone in three separate small bowls. She also put a wet pea seed on a fourth wet cotton ball. She left all four bowls on her window sill and checked them every day for one week.
Q1. Which bowl will show a baby plant (sprout) after a few days? L2
D. Only the wet pea seed has both water and a living seed inside. Water wakes up the seed, which then shows growth — one of the seven life-signs.
Q2. The small stone never sprouts. Which life-sign is missing in it? L1
All seven life-signs are missing — a stone is non-living. It cannot grow, breathe, eat, reproduce, respond, move on its own, or excrete waste.
Q3. Ria sees that even the dry pea seed does not sprout. Does that mean the dry seed is non-living? Explain. L4
No. The dry seed is still alive but is in a resting stage called dormancy. It will sprout only when it gets water, warmth, and air. Living things need the right conditions to show their life-signs.
Q4. Fill in the blank: When we breathe out, we release a gas called ______. L1
Carbon dioxide. Oxygen goes in; carbon dioxide comes out during respiration.
Q5. True or False — A burning candle is a living thing because its flame "grows" and "moves". Correct it if false. L5
False. A candle flame shows only a couple of life-like signs (it seems to move and grow bigger or smaller) but it cannot eat, reproduce, or respond. A flame is a chemical change — it is non-living.
Assertion – Reason
Assertion (A): Plants are living things.
Reason (R): Plants show growth, make their own food, and reproduce through seeds.
Answer: A. Plants are indeed living because they display several of the seven characteristics including growth, nutrition, and reproduction.
Assertion (A): A car is a living thing.
Reason (R): A car moves on the road.
Answer: D. A is false — a car is non-living. R is true — a car does move — but movement alone is not enough to call a thing alive. The car cannot grow, breathe, or reproduce.
Assertion (A): Excretion is important for all living things.
Reason (R): Waste materials, if kept inside the body, would harm the living thing.
Answer: A. Both true and R correctly explains A. Waste must be removed so the body stays healthy.
Frequently Asked Questions — Living and Non-living — Characteristics of Life
What does the topic 'Living and Non-living — Characteristics of Life' cover in Class 6 Science?
The topic 'Living and Non-living — Characteristics of Life' is part of NCERT Class 6 Science Chapter 10 — Living Creatures: Exploring their Characteristics. It covers the key ideas of living, non-living, growth, reproduction, respiration, movement, response, nutrition, excretion, explained through everyday examples, labelled diagrams and hands-on activities from the NCERT Curiosity textbook. Class 6 students learn simple definitions, see why each idea matters in daily life, and try short experiments and observations. The lesson uses easy language, colourful pictures and small questions so that young learners build a strong base for higher classes and for competency-based questions in CBSE school tests.
Why is 'Living and Non-living — Characteristics of Life' important for Class 6 NCERT Science?
'Living and Non-living — Characteristics of Life' is important because it builds the first ideas of science that Class 6 students will use again in Class 7, 8 and beyond. NCERT Chapter 10 — Living Creatures: Exploring their Characteristics — introduces living and connects it to things children already see at home, at school and in nature. Learning this topic helps students ask better questions, understand simple news about science, and score well in CBSE tests that use competency-based questions. The chapter also supports NEP 2020 by encouraging curiosity, observation and learning by doing rather than only reading and memorising.
What are the key ideas students should remember from Living and Non-living — Characteristics of Life?
The key ideas in 'Living and Non-living — Characteristics of Life' for Class 6 Science are: living, non-living, growth, reproduction, respiration, movement, response, nutrition, excretion. Students should be able to say each term in their own words, give one or two easy examples from daily life, and draw a small labelled diagram where needed. A good way to revise is to make flashcards, write a short note in the science notebook, and solve the NCERT in-text and exercise questions of Chapter 10. Linking every idea to something seen at home or school — in the kitchen, garden, playground or sky — makes these ideas easy to remember for unit tests and the annual CBSE examination.
How is Living and Non-living — Characteristics of Life taught using activities in NCERT Curiosity Class 6?
NCERT Curiosity Class 6 Science teaches 'Living and Non-living — Characteristics of Life' through an inquiry-based approach using Predict–Observe–Explain activities. Students first make a guess, then try a small experiment with safe, easily available materials, and finally explain what happened and why. This matches the NEP 2020 focus on learning by doing. For Chapter 10 — Living Creatures: Exploring their Characteristics — the textbook has hands-on tasks, labelled pictures and thinking questions built for Bloom's Taxonomy Levels 1 to 6. Teachers use these activities, along with competency-based questions (CBQs) and assertion–reason items, to check real understanding instead of only rote learning.
What real-life examples of living can Class 6 students see at home?
Class 6 students can see living at home in many simple ways linked to 'Living and Non-living — Characteristics of Life'. Kitchens, school bags, playgrounds, the garden and the night sky are full of examples that match NCERT Chapter 10 — Living Creatures: Exploring their Characteristics. For example, students can look at food labels, watch changes while cooking, try safe activities with water, magnets or shadows, and observe the Sun, Moon and weather each day. Keeping a small science diary — with the date, what was observed and a quick drawing — turns daily life into a mini science lab. These real-life links make concepts easy to remember and help in answering competency-based questions in CBSE Class 6 Science.
How does 'Living and Non-living — Characteristics of Life' connect to other chapters of Class 6 Science?
'Living and Non-living — Characteristics of Life' connects to many other chapters in NCERT Class 6 Science Curiosity. The ideas of living come back when students study related topics like diversity in the living world, food, magnets, measurement, materials, temperature, water, separation, habitats, natural resources and the solar system. For example, what students learn here helps them build mental pictures for later chapters and for Class 7 and Class 8 Science. Teachers often ask cross-chapter questions in CBSE exams to check if students can use what they learned in Chapter 10 — Living Creatures: Exploring their Characteristics — in new situations. This linked approach matches the NEP 2020 and NCF 2023 focus on holistic, competency-based learning.
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