Plants & Animals
Discover what makes plants and animals special, what they need to live, and how they are different!
🌿 Plants and Animals Are Both Alive!
Both plants and animals are living things. That means they both grow, need food and water, and can make more of themselves (reproduce).
Grow
Both get bigger over time
Need Water
All living things need water to survive
Reproduce
Animals have babies; plants make seeds
How Are Plants and Animals Different?
🌳 Plants
- ● Stay in one place — they have roots that hold them in the soil
- ● Make their own food using sunlight, water, and air
- ● Have leaves, stems, roots, and often flowers and seeds
- ● Do not have eyes, legs, or a mouth
- ● Examples: gum tree, wattle, grass, rose, fern
🐿 Animals
- ● Can move from place to place to find food
- ● Eat food — they cannot make their own
- ● Have body parts like eyes, legs, wings, or fins
- ● Breathe air (through lungs or gills)
- ● Examples: kangaroo, kookaburra, fish, spider, worm
What Do Plants and Animals Need?
🌿 Plants Need:
🐿 Animals Need:
Worked Examples
Example 1: Is a wattle tree a plant or an animal?
A wattle tree stays in the ground, has roots and leaves, and makes its own food from sunlight.
✓ A wattle tree is a plant.
Example 2: What does a kangaroo need to survive?
A kangaroo needs to eat grass and leaves (food), drink water, breathe air, and have a safe shelter in the bush.
✓ Animals like kangaroos need food, water, air, and shelter.
Example 3: Why can't a plant move to find food?
Plants make their own food using sunlight, water, and air. They don't need to move — they just need to stay in the sunlight!
✓ Plants use sunlight to produce food through a process called photosynthesis.
Key Vocabulary
Living Thing
Something that is alive — it grows, needs food and water, and can reproduce. Both plants and animals are living things.
Characteristics
The features or qualities that make something what it is — for example, having leaves, roots, or legs.
Reproduce
To make new living things. Animals have babies; plants make seeds.
Sunlight
Energy from the sun that plants use to make their own food. This is why plants grow towards the light!
Knowledge Check
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Key Concepts Summary
- ●Both plants and animals are living things — they grow, need water, and reproduce.
- ●Plants stay in one place and make their own food from sunlight, water, and air.
- ●Animals move around and must find and eat food.
- ●Animals need food, water, air, and shelter to survive.
- ●Plants need sunlight, water, air, and soil to survive.