(bright music) - Hello scientists!

It's so good to see you again.

Welcome back to Room Nine, our region's largest classroom.

My name is Mrs. Stobbs and I teach kindergarten in the Maplewood-Richmond Heights School District right here in St. Louis and today, I'll be teaching another science lesson for kindergartners and for preschoolers, but of course as always, all learners are welcome to join me.

So, let's have some fun right now in this beautiful day.

So my friends, I bet that you've noticed that the world seems to be changing right now.

Have you noticed that?

Have you noticed that we are moving from one season to another?

What two seasons are we moving between?

It was winter when it was so cold and snowy and now it's turning into?

Spring!

And in spring, you start to see lots of beautiful things.

You see flowers growing on trees.

This tree just has the buds, but pretty soon, these are going to be beautiful flowers.

I wonder if you have trees like this in your yard.

And then also, oh my goodness, I spotted over there some beautiful flowers.

Come with me.

In Spring, we have so many beautiful things that are just starting to pop up all around the world.

So let's go look at some beautiful, colorful flowers that are over here.

I wonder if you have any beautiful, colorful flowers around you.

Look at these beautiful purple flowers.

They weren't here just a few weeks ago.

Spring is a wonderful season because the world seems like it's changing and new things start to pop up.

We have flowers, we have buds on trees.

Pretty soon, you'll start to hear baby birds chirping, you might even see some baby bunnies maybe even in your backyard.

So the world is full of changes, but I have a question for you.

Let's come over here.

I spotted a rock over here.

Do you see these rocks?

Do you think they're going to change?

Do you think they're going to look any different than how they did in the wintertime?

Now the ground and the trees and even the animals around us are looking different than what they did in the wintertime, but this rock I don't think is going to look any different than it did in the winter.

Now, in the winter, you might be saying Mrs. Stobbs, it probably was covered with snow in the wintertime.

And you're right, but this rock is not going to grow or change like the flowers are growing and changing right now.

Do you know why that is?

Have you ever heard of living things and nonliving things?

Oh boy.

If you can think of something that is living, can you shout it out?

A dog, that's a good one.

A cat.

So fun.

A tree.

We just saw a tree.

You're right.

What other one?

Shout another one.

Did someone say an ostrich?

That was a great one.

And I heard somebody say people.

You're right.

All of those are living things.

People and animals and plants are all living things, but things like rocks are nonliving things.

Can you think of examples of other nonliving things like rocks, things that aren't alive?

Did you say your couch?

You're right.

I bet you're glad that your couch isn't alive 'cause then you'd have to be careful whenever you sat on it.

What about, let me see, your cars.

You're right.

Your cars aren't alive.

Well, then that makes me think, what makes something living or nonliving?

Do you know?

Well, one thing I said already is that plants and animals, they grow and change.

Like I said, in the spring, we have flowers that are just starting to burst out of the ground.

They're growing, they're changing.

Also, people and animals grow and change.

People start off as teeny tiny babies and then they turn into little kids and then bigger kids and teenagers and then they become adults.

And the same thing with dogs.

They start off as teeny tiny cute little puppies and then they grow into big dogs.

And then what about plants?

Plants start off as teeny tiny little seedlings and then they grow and grow and grow and then they might even get as big as some of these trees.

So big!

So living things grow and change.

And this rock, it might change, it might get smaller, if somebody would pick it up and drop it, it might get smaller, but it's not going to get bigger, it's not going to grow and change.

That's one way that we can tell something is living or nonliving.

It grows and changes.

Now, does this rock need anything to stay here?

Does it need anything to help it survive?

No!

It just sits here and it's totally fine.

It could be out here in super cold weather, it could be out here in super hot weather, it doesn't need to go get a drink, it doesn't need to go eat something, it just sits here.

But what about people?

Do we need things to help keep us alive?

Yes, we do!

We need food, we need water, we need air.

Can you take a deep breath with me?

We also need shelter.

We need a place to live.

What about animals?

What do they need to survive?

They also need food, air, water and shelter.

And what about these plants?

What about these little flowers?

They need dirt and water and air, right?

And if they didn't have enough water or if they didn't have good dirt, they wouldn't be living anymore.

They would shrivel up.

So living things need other things to survive.

So we know that living things grow and change, they need food, air and water to survive and then also, all living things can move on their own.

Can you show me how you can move on your own?

Wow!

You can do a little dance.

I know.

Can you show me how a snake would move on its own?

Oh boy.

Can you show me how a bird would move on its own?

Good job.

What about, this is a tricky one, how does a plant move on its own?

Now, I don't see these plants wiggling around like crazy, but plants do grow and move on their own.

They start off very small and then they slowly grow and they get bigger and bigger.

And do you know what?

Plants also turn their leaves toward the sun.

They move so slowly though that it's hard for us to see it, but plants do move on their own.

Wow.

Does this rock move on its own?

No, it would never move on its own.

It would have to be moved, we learned about pushes and pulls, we would have to use a push or a pull to make it move.

So that is the difference between a living and a nonliving thing.

So my friends, today, we are going to learn even more about living and nonliving things and how you are a living thing.

You are an amazing living thing.

So, let's go back to our classroom and learn a little bit more.

Now that we're back in our classroom, it's time to learn a little bit more about living things and especially about how you are a living thing and how I am a living thing.

And remember, whenever we were outside, we learned that living things grow and change, they need food, water and air to survive and they can move on their own.

Now, let's read a book though to find out a little bit more.

This book is called "I Am a Living Thing" and it's by Bobbie Kalman.

Let's read this book together.

"I Am a Living Thing".

And this book is published by the Crabtree Publishing Company and they gave me permission to read this book to you.

This book is an informational book.

Look at that table of contents.

We are going to find out am I a living thing, I am made of cells.

Do you know what cells are?

I am all that, what do I need, I need water, I need air, I need sunlight, I need energy, I need food, I need people, I need other things, I grow and change and then at the end, there's words to know and an index.

So we're going to find out a lot in this book.

Am I a living thing?

That's a heading in this book and a lot of informational books have headings.

Am I a living thing?

Plants are living things, animals are living things, people are living things too.

I am a person, I am a living thing.

Living things need air, water and food.

Most living things also need sunshine.

I need air, water, food and sunshine.

I need plants and animals.

Did you know that we need plants and animals?

We do.

I need a place to live.

I need people who love me.

Do you need all of those things too?

You do.

I am made of cells.

Have you ever heard that word before?

Cells are too tiny for us to see, but they make up our body.

I am made up of tiny things called cells.

You can see cells only with a microscope.

And remember, microscopes help us see things that are teeny, teeny tiny.

Some living things have just one cell, other living things have many kinds of cells.

People have many kinds of cells.

The cells shown here are all in our bodies.

Here are some different types of cells.

This is what your brain cells look like, so up in your brain.

Can you touch your brain?

This is what your blood cell looks like.

This is what a bone cell looks like, makes up your bones.

This is what your skin cells look like.

Do you see that on your skin?

No, but if you had a microscope, you could see it.

And your fat cells and everybody has some fat on their body to protect themselves.

Blood flows through our bodies.

Which cells are blood cells?

Do you remember?

Right here.

Nerve cells tell us when we are cold or hurt.

Which are nerve cells?

Brain cells make our bodies work, skin cells cover our bodies.

And it says here, the blue cells are nerve cells, the beige cells above are skin cells, the orange cells are your brain cells and the red cells are blood cells.

So there are some pictures of your cells close-up.

Isn't that amazing that that's what we're made out of?

I am all that.

I am a mammal.

Mammals are animals with hair or fur on their bodies.

Do you have hair on your body?

You do.

You have hair on your head, but you also have hair on your arms and your legs, all over your body.

Mammals have backbones.

Do you have a backbone?

Can you feel your backbone?

You have to press a little bit harder.

See if you can feel something right in the middle of your back.

Mammals have backbones and skeletons inside their bodies.

Living things with backbones and skeletons are called vertebrates.

I have a backbone and a skeleton.

I am a vertebrate.

And that is what our skeletons look like.

Isn't that fun?

Big brains.

Do you have a big brain?

Yes you do.

You have a very big brain.

Vertebrates have large brains.

People are the smartest vertebrates.

We can learn many things.

Oh my goodness, I see eyes, ears, nose, a mouth with a tongue and then someone using their hands.

What does that remind you of?

We learned about it a long time ago.

The five senses.

Five senses.

Vertebrates have senses.

I have five senses.

My senses are sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.

I see with my eyes, I hear with my...ears, I smell with my nose, I taste with my tongue and I touch with my fingers.

Really, you can touch with any part of your body, right?

But people are living things and living things have senses.

What do I need?

Air, water, sunshine, soil and rocks are nonliving things.

Do you remember that rock that we saw outside?

But then also air and water and sunshine and dirt are nonliving things.

They don't grow and change, they don't move on their own, they don't need food, air, water to survive.

These things are not made of cells.

Nonliving things are very important to me.

I could not stay alive without them.

So we depend on nonliving things to survive.

I need water.

How many of you like to get a drink of water?

I do.

It's so good, especially after you've been outside playing and you're so thirsty and you just need to gulp, gulp, gulp, drink some water.

Did you know though that our bodies are made up of water?

They are.

It says, my body is made mostly of water.

Wow.

I need to drink water all day long to keep my body healthy.

I also take baths in water and wash my clothes in water.

I love to swim and play in water too.

Can you show me how you like to go swimming?

We also use water to clean ourselves and to clean our clothes and of course, we gulp, gulp, gulp, drink it and it makes our bodies healthy.

I need air.

Can you take a big deep breath in?

Another big deep breath in.

We need air to survive.

And that's what the book says.

I need to breathe air to survive.

I breathe air using my lungs.

The part of air I inhale or breathe in is called oxygen.

So breath in some oxygen.

And you can even feel your lungs getting bigger.

Try it again.

You're breathing in oxygen.

But then the part of air that you exhale or breathe out is called carbon dioxide.

So you breathe in oxygen and you breathe out carbon dioxide.

And then plants do the opposite.

They take in carbon dioxide and they release oxygen.

They make the air fresh for us to breathe.

These girls are planting a tree to make the air fresher to breathe.

I need sunlight.

Do you like sunny days?

I like sunny days except sometimes, I get sunburnt.

Do you ever get sunburnt?

You have to put on sunscreen or wear a hat or maybe sit under an umbrella so that you don't get burned, but I do like sunny days.

And why is sunlight so important?

Let's read on.

Sunlight keeps me warm.

Have you noticed that?

We talked about that, how sunlight can make it feel so much warmer.

If you stand in the shade, you feel a little bit cooler, but if you stand in the sun, you feel warmer.

So sunlight keeps our bodies warm.

My body needs to be warm to stay alive.

Without sunlight, the world would be cold and dark.

And it says, without sunlight, I could not see the beautiful colors on this butterfly.

Oh boy.

So sunlight is important to us too, even though it's not a living thing.

I need energy.

Living things need energy.

Energy is the power to do things.

I need energy to move, to grow and to think.

I need energy to play, to have fun and to be happy.

Do you have a lot of energy?

You know what, sometimes grown-ups tell kids you have so much energy because you're just running around all the time and we say oh my goodness, I wish I had that much energy.

And it's true.

Kids have a lot of energy, but where does your energy come from?

Let's keep on reading.

All energy comes from the sun!

That's what it says.

Plants take in the sun's energy through their leaves and then plants use energy to make food.

The energy of the sun is in all of these fruits.

So the sun or the plants take energy from the sun and they make food and then what do we do?

What do we do to those vegetables and fruits?

We eat them and then the energy is inside of us.

So sometimes, if you're ever feeling very slow and tired, sometimes you just need a snack and then you feel much better.

And sometimes maybe you need a little bit of a nap too, right?

I need food!

How many of you want some food right now?

I just ate some lunch, so I'm not too, too hungry, but I know sometimes I do feel very hungry and I say I need food!

Plants can get energy from sunshine, but people need to eat food to get energy.

The energy of the sun is in the plant foods and in foods that come from animals.

Most people eat both kinds of food.

This girl is eating a meat kebab.

What sort of foods do you see around here that you like to eat?

Do you like cheese?

Oh my goodness, I love cheese.

It's one of my favorite foods and it gives us minerals and calcium, gives us calcium to make your bones and your teeth strong.

What about beans?

Do you like beans?

I love beans.

What about raspberries and blueberries?

And kiwi.

Do you like fruit?

I love fruit and I love the spring and summer whenever fruit starts to get to be more fresh whenever you can grow it.

What about peppers?

Do you like peppers?

Some of those might be spicy peppers.

But some of them might be sweet peppers.

I love sweet peppers.

Spicy peppers I like a little bit, but sweet peppers, one of my favorite foods.

What about celery?

Maybe with some peanut butter, maybe you can make some ants on a log.

That's so much fun.

What about juice?

Juice is really good for you.

What about hamburgers?

Cheeseburgers?

Yum.

The cheeseburgers have important nutrients that you need too.

And what about tacos?

Yummy.

And I forgot one.

Bread, I love bread.

I think I said that in another video, but I love bread.

Let's look.

Which foods on this page come from plants?

Can you point to them, shout them out?

Which ones just come from plants?

All the fruits and the veggies do.

What about bread?

You know what, bread comes from a plant too.

It comes from wheat and then you turn it into flour and then you make bread.

Which foods come from animals?

The hamburger, the meat on the hamburger comes from an animal, the cheese comes from an animal and the meat in the tacos come from animals too.

So we need both foods that come from plants and also foods from animals.

And some of you might just eat food from plants, and that's okay too.

Just as long as you get enough nutrients, enough of that energy from the food.

So we already said we need food, water, air, sunlight, but you know what?

People need other things too to be happy.

We need people and that's what this page says.

I need people.

I need other people.

I need my family and I need to be part of a community.

A community is a place where people live.

It is also the people who live at that place.

So your community might be your family, it might be your family, it might be your neighborhood, it might be people at your school or your church or maybe on a sports team.

Those are the people that you spend time with and need to help take care of you, but your family also is very important.

I am a part of a family who loves me and I am part of a school community.

And you know what, in my classroom, we always talk about how we're a part of the community and we're part of a little family because we want to take care of each other.

Earth is a big community that I share with many people.

Some people have different beliefs and some people live in far away places and some people are my very best friends.

We are all different and we are all special.

So people need other people.

Let's think about some other things that we need.

It says I need other things.

I need a place where I can feel safe.

I hope you have a place that makes you feel safe.

Maybe home or at school, maybe just in your bed all snuggled up with your stuffed animals.

I feel safe in my home.

My home protects me from wind, rain, snow and the hot sun.

My home is a place where I sleep, eat and have fun.

It is a place to which I can invite my friends.

I'm very lucky to have a home.

Not everyone has a home.

Did you know that, that there are people that do not have homes?

And it makes this author feel a little bit sad and it makes me feel a little bit said too, but the author says I'm very lucky to have a home.

So if you have a home, you're very, very lucky.

Let's see what else we need.

I need clothes.

My brother and I like to play in the snow.

We wear jackets, hats and boots to keep us warm.

We have summer clothes too.

And I bet some of you are starting to change out of your winter clothes into your warm weather clothes because it's getting warmer outside.

And let's see what else these kids say they need.

He says, "I need to sing.

I love music."

"I need to study so I can become a doctor."

And you guys are learning right now.

That is something that's important for kids to do, is to learn.

"And I need to be me."

So you need to be yourself and to be unique.

Let's learn a little bit more.

I grow and change.

We talked about that, that that is something else that living things do.

Some animals hatch from eggs, like this little chick, but did you hatch from an egg?

No!

You were just born.

It says mammals are born.

I did not hatch from an egg like a bird.

I am a mammal and I was born a baby just like this one.

Look at that teeny tiny baby.

The baby's even in a nest.

We don't put our babies in a nest.

I could not walk or talk, but I can do both now.

So when you were a teeny, teeny tiny baby, you weren't that teeny tiny, but whenever you were a teeny tiny baby and your mommy rocked you like that, you couldn't walk or talk, but now, you can walk and talk, you can feed yourself, you can do lots of important things because you're growing and changing.

You are a living thing and living things grow and change.

This page says, there is a new baby in my family.

Once, I was as small as he is.

I grew and I learned to walk and talk.

I am still growing and changing.

I go to school now.

I can read and write and when I grow up, I can have babies too.

Growing, changing and having babies is called a life cycle.

A new life cycle starts with each baby that's born.

And here's a picture or a chart showing a life cycle.

Living things grow and change.

They can make babies when they become adults.

So here's a baby, a growing child, a teenager and then an adult and now that adult has a baby and that baby's going to grow up.

And then here's our words to know and index.

Do some of those pictures look familiar?

I bet they do.

So friends, now we know that we are living things and we need special things to help keep us alive.

We need food, water, air and shelter, but then we also need things like sunlight because that helps us get the food that we need, right?

And then there are also some other important things that we need like community and other people and family.

And then maybe even some fun things too, right?

So, "I Am a Living Thing".

Now, my friends, we've talked a lot about what living things are.

We said that living things, they need all those things that we just said, they can move on their own and you can definitely on your own and also, they can grow and change.

So one thing that I want to challenge you today is to ask your grown-up if you have pictures of yourself whenever you were a baby so you can see how you've grown and changed throughout the years.

And you know what?

I went through some of my old pictures and I picked out some so that you can see how I've grown and changed.

Do you wanna see them?

This is me whenever I was six months old.

That's baby Mrs. Stobbs.

Look how tiny I was.

Do I look the same?

(chuckles) Here I am whenever I'm one year old.

Just one year old.

So a little bit older than this one, but you can see that I've started to grow and change.

Let's do this one.

This one's a little bit smaller.

Here I am whenever I was two.

You can see, my hair is getting longer and I'm getting bigger.

Here I am whenever I'm five.

Again, getting bigger and bigger.

Here I am, let me put that one down, here I am whenever I'm eight.

Again, I'm getting bigger and you can even start to see that I have big grown-up teeth in that picture.

And then here I am whenever I am, let's see, I'm 10.

And then here I am now.

So I've grown and changed.

So that's something really fun that you can do this week is to look back at your baby pictures to see how you've grown and changed.

Well, I'll see you next week and we'll continue learning about living things.

Bye.

(bright music) - [Narrator] Teaching in Room Nine is made possible with support of Bank of America, Dana Brown Charitable Trust, Emerson and viewers like you.

(bright music)