Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources
Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources
Reading Comprehension Worksheets
Life Science
It's Alive!

Life Science
Life Science


It's Alive!
Print It's Alive! Reading Comprehension with Fifth Grade Work

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Print It's Alive! Reading Comprehension


Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   5.56

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    logy, long-lived, nonliving, happening, non-living, availability, characteristic, bristlecone, lifelike, utterly, repairing, pharaohs, atmosphere, generation, organism, reproduction


It's Alive!
By Cindy Grigg
  

1     Look around you. What do you see that is alive? Not alive? Sometimes it's a little hard to tell. Make a list of what you see around you that is alive, and make another list of things that are not alive. Now, compare the two lists. What do the things that are alive have in common? How are they different from the things you listed that are not alive? What does it mean to be alive?
 
2     On your list of living things, you might have listed yourself, your pets, and plants. That's a good start, but there are at least two million species of living things that have been identified. "Bio" means life and "logy" means study, so biologists study the science of life. When biologists study the vast variety of over two million species of living things, the question of "What is alive?" becomes a little confusing. Of the three examples above, you and your pets can move, but plants cannot move. Or can they? Have you ever seen a plant growing toward the sunlight? You can talk and respond to others, but your dog or cat can't. Or can they? When your dog gets hot lying in the sun and moves into the shade, he is responding to his environment.
 
3     It is pretty clear to most people that a desk is not alive. Desks are cold to the touch; they don't move on their own; they don't respond to you. It is also clear that cats, dogs, and humans are alive, especially when you see them run, jump, or respond to you. Those are fairly easy examples, right? What about a cell phone or a stick of firewood? Are these things living or nonliving, and how can you tell?
 
4     You know that a cell phone is nonliving, right? But it makes noise and it responds when you press its buttons. That's more lifelike than a desk! What about firewood? Firewood comes from trees, and trees are living. But if a tree dies and is chopped up for fuel, are the logs from that tree nonliving because they are no longer alive? As you can see, the distinction is not always clear. Some inanimate objects have characteristics of living organisms, while many living organisms, on the face of it, seem utterly lifeless.

Paragraphs 5 to 14:
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Life Science
             Life Science


Science
             Science


    Careers in Science  
 
    Caring for Earth  
 
    Clouds  
 
    Dinosaurs  
 
    Earth's Land  
 
    Earth  
 
    Earthquakes  
 
    Electricity  
 
    Energy  
 
    Erosion  
 
    Food Pyramid  
 
    Food Webs and Food Chain  
 
    Forces and Motion  
 
    Fossils  
 
    Health and Nutrition  
 
    How Things Work  
 
    Landforms  
 
    Life Science  
 
    Light  
 
    Magnets  
 
    Matter  
 
 
    Moon  
 
    Natural Disasters  
 
    Photosynthesis  
 
    Plant and Animal Cells  
 
    Plants  
 
    Rocks and Minerals  
 
    Science Process Skills  
 
    Scientific Notation  
 
    Seasons  
 
    Simple Machines  
 
    Soil  
 
    Solar System  
 
    Sound  
 
    Space and Stars  
 
    Sun  
 
    Tsunami  
 
    Volcanoes  
 
    Water Cycle  
 
    Water  
 
    Weather  
 



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