Living or Nonliving in the Garden

A stone is not living. A worm is. Easy so far.

Then the sheet hands you a seed, a fallen leaf, a piece of dry bark and an egg case, and a class of six year olds discovers that the line is not where they thought it was. The seed is the one that splits a room. Half say living because it will grow, half say not because it is not doing anything.

Both arguments are good. The sheet does not resolve it quickly, which is deliberate.

The page has the sorting frame, a set of easy items, four hard ones, and a discussion box for the class position. We write the class position on the wall and revisit it in grade three when the same children meet the actual criteria for life. They usually remember what they voted.