Science Ecosystems & Habitatsusually ages 6–7

Living, Dead & Never Alive

Explore and compare the differences between things that are living, dead, and things that have never been alive

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

Sort a collection of objects into three groups: living, dead (was once alive), never alive
Give reasons for each sorting decision (e.g. 'the leaf was on a tree so it was alive once')
List characteristics of living things such as growing, breathing, reproducing, and moving

🖨 Print this page to keep the checklist — it prints beautifully.

Try this together

If you show your child a rock, a fallen leaf, and a caterpillar, can they tell you which is alive, which was once alive, and which was never alive?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on

Living Things Vocabularyages 5–7Comparing living, dead, and never-been-alive things requires the life processes vocabulary to give reasons

Common Plants & Treesages 5–6Knowing plant names helps distinguish living from non-living

Naming Common Animalsages 5–6Knowing animal groups helps distinguish living from non-living

Living, Dead & Never Alivethis skill · ages 6–7

Unlocks

Habitats & Basic Needsages 6–8Must distinguish living from non-living before understanding habitats that support living things

How fossils formages 7–8Understanding living vs dead supports understanding what gets fossilised

Fossils as Evidenceages 8–11Understanding living vs dead supports interpreting fossil evidence

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Candidate matches to official curriculum codes — machine-suggested, unreviewed (v0.1).

Show candidate curriculum codes · 1 ACARA · 2 NSW · 1 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9S3U01medium confidenceYear 3 · Science understanding

compare characteristics of living and non-living things and examine the differences between the life cycles of plants and animals

NSW syllabus codes & stages only

STE-SCI-01low confidenceScience and Technology K-6 · Early Stage 1

ST1-SCI-01low confidenceScience and Technology K-6 · Stage 1

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2S4U01high confidenceScience · Levels 3 and 4 · Science Understanding strand

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

Habitat Vocabularyages 6–8 Habitats & Basic Needsages 6–8 Local Plants & Animalsages 6–8 Simple Food Chainsages 6–7

All Ecosystems & Habitats skills →