Moving, growing and sensing
People move with muscles that pull on the skeleton. Plants move much less, but they do move. The Gazania flower opens in the day, the leaves of the Mimosa fold when touched, and young sunflowers turn to follow the Sun. Single-celled animals move too. An amoeba pushes out false feet, Euglena swims with a whip-like flagellum and Paramecium moves with many tiny hairs called cilia. Living things also grow, reproduce, sense changes and adapt. A change that a living thing can sense is a stimulus, and what it does is its response. An adaptation helps it live where it does: a camel has wide feet for walking on sand, and a cactus stores water in its stem. The book leaves growth, reproduction, sensation and adaptation for you to research.
| Living thing | How it moves or responds |
|---|---|
| person | muscles pull on the skeleton |
| Mimosa | leaves fold when touched |
| amoeba | false feet |
| Euglena | a flagellum |
| Paramecium | cilia |
Watch a plant lean. Put a small pot plant near a window for a week. Draw it every day. Turn the pot round and watch what happens over the next days. If you can find a Mimosa, touch one leaf gently and watch. Then choose one of growth, reproduction, sensation or adaptation and find two facts about it to share.