Grade 6 Cells and Life word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

Grade 6 Cells and Life word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

I made this cells and life puzzle set for my 6th graders during our life science unit. The kids had heard of cells but had no idea about the vocabulary that describes living things, like organism, unicellular, or multicellular. They also kept mixing up "cell" and "tissue." So I put together a word search, a word scramble, and a crossword using words like cell, organism, tissue, organ, organ system, nucleus, cytoplasm, cell membrane, mitochondria, unicellular, multicellular, and microscope . I also included a few like "biology" and "microscope" because they kept coming up in our class discussions . Nothing fancy — just puzzles to help the vocabulary finally stick.

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 "mitochondria" (it's a long one) or whether a tissue is the same as a cell (it's not—they always have opinions about it) . The crossword I use for partners or as a review, and I usually have a cell diagram nearby for the kids who need the visual support to see the parts of a cell . I added a couple simple cell and microscope drawings but nothing too busy.

Works for 6th through 7th grade. Print and go. Sometimes I have early finishers draw an animal cell and label its parts on the back. The kids actually ask for these now.