Living Creatures Exploring their Characteristics
What makes something alive? This Class 6 Curiosity chapter explores the characteristics shared by all living creatures — they need food, grow, breathe, respond to their surroundings, move, remove wastes and reproduce — and uses these features to tell living things from non-living ones.
Learning objectives
- List the characteristics of living things.
- Explain each life process simply.
- Distinguish living from non-living things.
- Apply the characteristics to examples.
Key concepts
Nutrition and growth
All living creatures need food, which gives them energy and materials — this is nutrition. Using this food, living things grow, increasing in size over time. A puppy grows into a dog and a seed into a plant, whereas non-living things like a stone do not feed or grow on their own.
Respiration and response
Living things carry out respiration, taking in oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide to get energy from food. They also show response to stimuli — reacting to changes around them, as when we pull a hand from something hot or a plant bends towards light.
Movement, excretion and reproduction
Living creatures show movement on their own — animals walk, swim or fly, and plant parts move slowly, like a flower opening. They carry out excretion, removing wastes made in the body. And they reproduce, producing young ones of their own kind so that life continues.
Living versus non-living
We decide whether something is living by checking these characteristics together. Living things show growth, nutrition, respiration, response, movement, excretion and reproduction; non-living things, such as a rock, a toy car or water, do not. A car may move, but only because we drive it, so movement alone is not enough.
Key definitions
- Nutrition
- Taking in food to get energy and materials for life.
- Respiration
- Releasing energy from food, usually using oxygen.
- Stimulus
- A change in surroundings that an organism responds to.
- Reproduction
- Producing new individuals of the same kind.
Solved examples
Q1. Name one characteristic that a stone does not show.
Solution: Growth (a stone does not grow on its own) — also nutrition or reproduction.
Q2. A plant bending towards light shows which characteristic?
Solution: Response to stimulus.
Q3. Why is a moving car not a living thing?
Solution: It moves only because we drive it; it does not feed, grow or reproduce.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Thinking anything that moves must be living (a car moves but is non-living).
- Believing plants are non-living because they do not walk.
- Forgetting respiration and excretion are also life processes.
- Using only one characteristic to decide if something is living.
Living Creatures Exploring their Characteristics — MCQ Quiz
10 questions with instant feedback. Use number keys 1–4 to answer.
Taking in food for energy and materials is called:
Practice questions
Short answer
Name any three characteristics of living things.
Growth, nutrition and reproduction (also respiration, response, movement, excretion).
What is respiration?
Releasing energy from food, usually by taking in oxygen and giving out carbon dioxide.
Why do we say plants are living?
Because they grow, take in nutrition, respire, respond to stimuli, reproduce and remove wastes.
Long answer
List and briefly explain the main characteristics of living creatures.
Living creatures share several characteristics. They show nutrition, taking in food for energy and materials, and growth, increasing in size over time. They carry out respiration, releasing energy from food using oxygen, and excretion, removing the wastes their bodies produce. They show response to stimuli, reacting to changes around them, such as moving away from heat or bending towards light. They show movement on their own, and they reproduce, producing new individuals of their own kind so life continues. Together these features describe what it means to be alive.
How do we tell living things from non-living things? Use examples.
We tell living from non-living things by checking the characteristics of life together, not just one. Living things — like a dog, a tree or an ant — grow, feed, respire, respond, move on their own, excrete and reproduce. Non-living things — like a stone, a spoon or water — do not do these. Care is needed because some non-living things seem to share one feature: a car moves, but only because a person drives it, and it does not feed, grow or reproduce. So only when several life characteristics are present do we call something living.
HOTS (Higher Order Thinking)
A toy robot walks and even 'talks'. Is it living? Justify using two characteristics.
No. Although it moves and makes sound, it does not grow or reproduce, and it needs us to power it — so it is non-living.
Why is growth in living things different from a pile of sand getting bigger when more sand is added?
Living things grow from within, using food, by themselves; a sand pile only gets bigger because sand is added from outside, not by any process of its own.
Quick revision
Revision notes
- Characteristics: nutrition, growth, respiration, response, movement, excretion, reproduction.
- Living things show these on their own; non-living things do not.
- Movement alone is not proof of life (e.g., a driven car).
- Decide by checking several characteristics together.
Key takeaways
- Living things share a set of life characteristics.
- Non-living things lack these processes.
- Use several features together to judge life.
Frequently asked questions
What are the characteristics of living things?
Nutrition, growth, respiration, response to stimuli, movement, excretion and reproduction.
Is a moving car alive?
No; it moves only when driven and does not feed, grow or reproduce.
What is reproduction?
The process of producing new individuals of the same kind.