Life and living things worksheets
Living or non-living?
In KS1 science children learn to differentiate between living and non-living things in terms of characteristics such as movement, growth and breathing. Identify which things are living and which are non-living, but watch out ... sometimes it's not as obvious as it seems!
Life cycles card game
This game is designed to help you revise the key stages in different life cycles. The aim of the game is to collect all four stages in each life cycle.
Labelling body parts correctly
How many labels can you fill in with names of body parts? Add some arrows to show where they are! Try and think about the more obscure parts of the body. Can you learn at least three new parts?
Label a human eye
Look at this diagram of the eye. Do you recognise all the different parts? Use the labels below to finish off the diagram.
Investigating bugs
Arm yourself with some small containers (see-through if possible) and a magnifying glass and find out what bugs live in your garden. Lift up stones and logs, look in dark corners near sheds, dig around in the soil and find cobwebs on the window sill. See if you can catch some bugs in your containers and talk to an adult about what each bug looks like.
Investigating animal homes
Think about all the ways our houses protect us. Now think about animals or bugs living in your garden or house. Where do animals and bugs like to live? Draw a picture and/or write the name of their home. Cut out all the cards and make two piles, one for creature cards and one for house cards; mix them up. Pick one card from each pile. Would a mouse like to live in a fish pond? Would a frog like to live in a bee hive? Why?
If I were an animal…
Look at some pictures of different animals. Compare yourself to them. What do you have that is the same as a given animal? What is different about you? Try to find at least five differences and five similarities.
Identifying good habitats
Try to find four different habitats that animals or minibeasts live in around your house. Make notes on how effective each of these habitats is.
Identifying animal features
Many animals across the world have similar characteristics, even if they live in very different places. Use your research skills to find information in books and online and see how many animals you can put in the following boxes. Remember, some animals may fall into more than one box!
I hear with my little ear
Sit in a quiet place and close your eyes and listen really carefully. What can you hear inside the room? What can you hear inside yourself? Record the sounds you hear.
Human / animal who’s who
Cut out the cards. Each player chooses a few cards; the other players need to ask questions to help them guess the identity of the animal or human pictured on the card.
How fast do you breathe?
We breathe all of the time. Breathing is vital to ensure that oxygen is taken into our bodies and harmful carbon dioxide is taken out of our body… but how fast do we breathe? When does this change? Why? Complete the table and see if this helps you to answer these questions.
How do seeds grow?
Read these instructions about growing a seed into a plant carefully. Can you match them with the picture cards and put them in the correct order? Cut out the cards or rewrite the instructions.
Heart rate mix and match
When we exercise the muscles and organs in our body need more oxygen and energy. Our heart therefore has to work much harder. Look at these pictures of different activities. Can you cut out the pictures and the heart rate cards and match up each activity with the heart rate you think is correct?
Healthy living pledges
Create a healthy living questionnaire for your friends and family. Think of questions about sleep, food, drink, exercise and then do a survey of everyone’s habits. At the end of the week as a family decide what everybody’s new healthy goals are going to be. What could you do more of? What will happen if you make some changes to your life? Why?
Healthy living bar chart
Exercising and eating the right types and amounts of food help humans to stay healthy. Make a chart showing 5-10 different things you can do to be healthy. Add in a column for each member of your family. Ask people in your family to tell you every time they eat or do something healthy and record it on the chart. Try recording your data in bar chart form. At the end of the week decide, as a family, what everybody’s new healthy living goal is going to be.
Habitat adaptation
Plants, just like animals, are able to adapt to their environment – they have to do this to survive. Sometimes this is a short-term change; they can also evolve to change permanently. This investigation looks at how plants adapt to meet their need for light.
Food webs
When we look at habitats we often look at food chains to see the feeding relationships within them. Sometimes, though, more than one animal feeds off others. This is when we make food webs. Look at these cards. Can you cut them out and arrange them on the table with the arrows to show which animals feed off each other?
Comparing senses game
Close your eyes and put your finger on one of these senses cards. Your game partner will offer you an object. Using only that sense, can you guess what the item is?
Comparing animals
Using a soft animal toy and a doll, label the different parts. Which parts do we all have (head, eyes, ears, etc.)? Now collect a few different soft animal toys. Can you group the animals that all have the same body parts together (for example all the ones that have tails, all the ones that have wings, all the ones that have fur)?