The water was never alive, but the frog lays its eggs in it.

A fish needs air too: it takes in oxygen from the water through its gills.

A small fish under the water.

The mud was never alive, but the cattail's roots hold on in it.

The sunlight is not alive, but the cattail makes its own food in its leaves, using sunlight and water.

Cattails growing in the mud at the pond's edge.

The pond's parts: the living things, and the things that are not alive that each one uses.

Every living thing of the pond uses the water, the mud, the sunlight or the air.

So the living things and the things that are not alive do belong together.