Living and Non-Living Things Alphabetical Order Worksheet
This living and non-living things alphabetical order worksheet asks 2nd graders to sort twelve words into living and nonliving, then write each list in ABC order. A full answer key is included for fast checking.
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About this resource
Description
Sorting the world into what is alive and what is not is one of the first big ideas in life science, and putting words in ABC order is one of the first big ideas in reading. This living and non-living things alphabetical order worksheet puts the two skills side by side, so second graders classify a set of familiar nouns and then arrange each group letter by letter. Because several of the words share a first letter, children have to look past the front of the word and compare the second letter before they can decide which one comes first.
Twelve short, decodable words are printed in a scrambled word box at the top of the page: ant, bell, bird, book, cat, fish, frog, lamp, rock, sock, spoon and tree. Students read the box, decide whether each word names a living thing or a nonliving thing, and then write it on the correct card in ABC order. The box is deliberately not alphabetical, so the sheet cannot be finished by copying straight down the list. This 2nd grade alphabetical order worksheet works well as morning work, as a science center task, or as a quick check after a lesson on living and nonliving things, and the completed key on page two makes grading a thirty-second job.
What’s Included
- 1 print-ready PDF worksheet
- Answer key
- 1 scrambled word box of 12 words
- 2 labeled sorting cards with 6 writing lines each
Three things make this living and non-living things alphabetical order worksheet worth the page. First, it asks for two kinds of thinking at once, a science judgment and a language judgment, which is how a skill becomes transferable instead of memorized. Second, the word list is built so that each column holds a pair of words beginning with the same letter, which forces the alphabetizing to reach the second letter rather than stopping at the front of the word. Third, every word is short and easy to read, so a student who is still building fluency can spend attention on the sorting and the ordering rather than on decoding.
Away from the page, take the same two questions outdoors. Ask children to name five things they can see on a short walk, decide which ones are living, and line those names up alphabetically back in the classroom. Index cards help here: write one word per card, shuffle them, and let a small group slide the cards into order by hand, which makes the second-letter comparison visible. You can also keep a running class chart with a Living column and a Nonliving column, adding one new word each morning and inserting it in its correct alphabetical spot instead of at the bottom.
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