Grade 1 Plants and Animals word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

I made this plants and animals puzzle set for my 1st graders during our life science unit. The kids could tell me a plant was green or that a dog was an animal, but they had no idea what words like roots, stem, or leaves meant when we started labeling the parts. They also kept mixing up herbivores and carnivores. So I put together a word search, a word scramble, and a crossword using basic vocabulary like plant, animal, leaf, flower, stem, roots, seed, grow, water, sun, soil, air, and a few animal types like mammal, bird, fish, insect, reptile, and amphibian . I also threw in a few like "habitat" and "food chain" because they kept coming up when we talked about where things live and what eats what .

The PDF is four pages. Three puzzles plus one answer key page. The word search works well for quiet time after recess or independent practice. The scramble gets them talking because they argue about the spelling of "amphibian" or whether a spider is an insect (it's not — arachnid, but the kids always have opinions about it). The crossword I use for partners or as a review after we've done a few plant and animal lessons . I added a couple simple leaf, flower, and animal footprint drawings but nothing too busy.

Works for 1st through 2nd grade, especially for kids who need extra exposure to science vocabulary. Print and go. Sometimes I have early finishers draw a plant and label its parts on the back, or pick one animal and write what it needs to survive. The kids actually ask for these now.