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An ecosystem is a place where plants, animals and other living things, the weather and the land all work together.

An ecosystem has living things, like plants and animals, and non-living things, like rocks and the temperature.

Ecosystems can be very big or very small. A little pool left on the beach when the sea goes out is a whole, tiny ecosystem!

The Sun gives energy to almost every ecosystem. Plants use sunlight to make their own food.

Experiment: Living or non-living hunt

1. Go outside with your teacher and put your hoop down on the ground: on grass, under a tree or by a wall.
2. Look carefully inside your hoop. Use the magnifying glass.
3. Is it living or non-living? Draw or write each thing in the right column of the table.
4. Look for living things (plants, insects, worms, moss) and non-living things (stones, soil, water, a puddle).
5. Count: did you find more living or more non-living things?
6. Back in class: choose one animal you found. What does it need from the living and non-living things around it?

Living things we found	Non-living things we found

Questions

1. Draw a small ecosystem. Show two living things and two non-living things.

   🍎

2. Is a stone living or non-living?

   living / non-living

3. Plants use … to make their food.

   sunlight / sand

Sources for every fact on this sheet: echoesof.science/school/ecosystems/sources/

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