Living Creatures: Exploring their Characteristics

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The six signs of life

Living things share a set of life processes. Tap each one to see what it means and how to spot it.

Explore · Signs of lifetap a term

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The three big ideas

Nutrition – all living things need food for energy and growth. Green plants make their own using sunlight; animals depend on plants or other animals.
Respiration – food is broken down (usually with oxygen) to release energy.
Movement – animals move on their own; even rooted plants move parts (leaves turn to light, flowers open).
Excretion – getting rid of the wastes made inside the body (we sweat and pass urine).
No single feature is enough – a thing is living only if it shows these processes together. (A cut chair came from a tree but no longer does any of them, so it is non-living.)

Common mistake: "Anything that moves is alive" or "plants are non-living because they stay put." A river moves yet is non-living; a still plant is fully living. Look for the whole set of life processes.

Growth – living things increase in size as they develop, from a tiny seed to a tree or from a baby to an adult.
Response to stimuli (sensitivity) – they react to changes around them: a touch-me-not folds when touched, a plant bends towards light, and you pull your hand back from a hot object.
Reproduction – living things make young ones of their own kind, so the species continues even after individuals die.
Every living thing has a life span – it is born, grows, reproduces and finally dies; a mango tree and a mouse live very different lengths of time.

Worked example. Is a moving toy car a living thing? Check it against the list.

It moves and "uses" a battery, but it does not grow, respond on its own, excrete or reproduce. Missing most life processes → the car is non-living.

Habitat – the place where an organism lives, giving it food, air, water and shelter. It has living (biotic) parts – plants, animals – and non-living (abiotic) parts – water, air, soil, light, temperature.
Adaptation – the special features and habits that suit an organism to its habitat, helping it survive there.
Desert: a camel in the Thar stores energy in its hump, drinks a lot at once and has broad feet for sand; a cactus has a fleshy water-storing stem and spines (not leaves) to save water.
Water: a fish has gills to breathe dissolved oxygen and fins with a streamlined body to swim; a lotus has broad floating leaves and roots in the muddy bottom.

Where you'll meet it

Living things in your world

Choosing plants for a garden

A gardener picks hardy, low-water plants for a sunny terrace and shade-lovers for a dim balcony – matching each plant’s adaptations to the habitat it will live in.

Caring for animals

Knowing that pets need food, water, air and rest – and that they respond, grow and feel – is what good care of a cow, dog or hen is built on.

Protecting habitats

Saving a wetland or forest means saving a whole habitat – both its living creatures and the water, soil and air they depend on. Lose the habitat and its adapted species cannot survive elsewhere.

Check yourself

Competency quiz

Modelled on the competency-based pattern — MCQ, assertion–reason and a case study, testing whether you can use the ideas, not just recall them.

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