Make a Living and Non Living Scrapbook

What You Need:

• Camera
• Blank notebook or small scrapbook (you can also make one out of construction paper)
• Markers
• Glue

What You Do:

1. Take your child to a pet store that has small animals such as birds, fish, reptiles, and hamsters. You might also want to take her to a plant nursery or the local park to find other living and non living things. If you have pets at home, feel free to take their pictures, too!
2. Walk around and ask her to point things out that are living and non living. For example, a bird and a tree are living things, but water and rocks are non living things.
3. Use the camera to snap photos of each living and non living thing she finds. When you get home, print the pictures.
4. Go through the pictures together. Hold up each picture and ask your child if the object is living or non living, and invite her to sort the pictures into two piles. Ask her what most living things have in common and how she can tell if something is living or non living.
5. On the cover of the notebook, help your child write the title "Living and Non Living Things" and have her include the date and her name as the author.
6. On the very first page, have her write "Non Living" in large letters in the middle of the page.
7. On the next page, show your child how to glue a picture into the notebook. Then help her write the name of the object and the words "Non Living" underneath the picture. Do this until every "non living" picture has been glued into the notebook.
8. Do the exact same thing for the "Living" section, until all the pictures are labeled and glued into the book.
9. When she's finished, look through the book together. When family comes to visit, have her share it with them, too!
10. When she gets older, you may want to continue the learning process by having her "revise" the book to add in which living things are mammals, fish, reptiles, and amphibians.