The Five Kingdoms

The Five Kingdoms are a system that scientists have developed in order to classify living things.

The Five Kingdoms are based on what the living things have that are in common and what is different about the living kingdoms.

The Five Kingdoms is over 2,000 years old, but it is always changing due to new information and new ideas that scientists have.

The Five Kingdoms include: Animal Kingdom, Monera Kingdom, Fungi Kingdom, Plant Kingdom and Protist Kingdom.

Animal Kingdom

The breakdown of each of these kingdoms will be found in more lessons, but here is a quick overview of what each kingdom is.

The Animal Kingdom consists of multi-cellular organisms. Multi-cellular means that the organism has more than one cell.

The organisms of the Animal Kingdom rely on other organisms to get food.

The Animal Kingdom is the largest of all of the other kingdoms and one interesting fact about the Animal Kingdom is that the animal’s range in different sizes, shapes, adaptions and are found in areas all over the world.

Monera Kingdom

The Monera Kingdom has organisms that are unicellular. Unicellular means that the organism only has one cell.

The interesting fact about the Monera Kingdom is that the one-celled organism is very simple, and they do not have many of the parts that other celled organisms have, such as a nucleus.

One type of Monera organism is bacteria.

Fungi Kingdom

The Fungi Kingdom is made up of organisms that do not make their own food. The Fungi organisms are different than all other organisms and at one point, the fungi were considered plants instead of any other type of organism.

This was later changed because as plants make their own foods, fungi do not, and they depend on others to make their food.

One type of fungi is moss. Moss grows low to the ground and has no roots.

Plant Kingdom

The Plant Kingdom includes any organism that is able to use water and sunlight in order to make their own food.

As we said above, a kingdom is classified by things that have similar characteristics. So, the Plant Kingdom includes trees, flowers, algae, grass and any other plant form that survives by making its own food.

Plants, like animals, come in all different shapes, sizes, and features and they are found all over the world.

Protist Kingdom

The Protist Kingdom are unicellular organisms. Unicellular means that they are made up of only one cell.

The difference between the Protist Kingdom and the Monera Kingdom (another one-celled organism) is that the Protists have a nucleus and they have moving parts and can move around their environment.
One example of a protist is an amoeba.

Facts About the Five Kingdoms

  • Everything that lives on the earth belongs in one of the Five Kingdoms.
  • There are different features that decide what kingdom an organism fits in.
  • Remember, to fit in a kingdom, the organism has to have like characteristics with the other organisms.
  • Scientists and biologists can tell how to identify an organism to a kingdom by studying it under a microscope.

What Did You Learn?

  • What are the Five Kingdoms? The Five Kingdoms are Animal, Monera, Fungi, Plant and Protist.
  • What is the difference between a Monera and a Protist? Even though both the Monera and Protist are single celled organisms, the Monera does not have a nucleus and the Protist does.
  • What is similar to the Plant and Animal Kingdom? Both of these kingdoms contain organisms that are found all over the world in different shapes and sizes.
  • What does unicellular mean? Unicellular means having one cell.
  • Why are fungi not considered part of the Plant Kingdom? Even though a Fungi has similar characteristics of a plant, it cannot make its own food which makes is a requirement to be part of the Plant Kingdom.