Living and Non-Living Things Word Search Worksheet for Kids

How to use this worksheet

Look at the word list together before starting and read each word aloud, asking your child whether it names something living or non-living. Have them scan the letter grid to find and circle each word, using a red crayon for living things and a blue crayon for non-living things as they find them. Continue until every word on the list has been found and color-coded. Review the finished grid together, asking your child to explain why each item belongs in its category.

Materials needed

• Pencil
• Red crayon
• Blue crayon

Extension activities

• •Go on a nature walk and sort everything you see into a 'living' or 'non-living' list.
• •Sort toys and household objects at home into living and non-living piles (using pictures for living things like animals).
• •Draw one new living thing and one new non-living thing that weren't on the worksheet's word list.
• •Create a homemade word search using new living and non-living vocabulary words.
• •Talk about what living things need to survive — food, water, air — and compare that to non-living objects.

Tips for parents and teachers

Discuss the characteristics of living things — they grow, move, breathe, or need food — since sorting by these traits builds understanding, while sorting from memory alone doesn't. Some items can be genuinely tricky (a seed, a plant, a cloud), so use disagreements as a chance to explore reasoning together rather than simply giving the answer. Encourage your child to sound out unfamiliar words as they search the grid, since word searches double as excellent spelling practice.