Middle School Life Science - Unit 1: Cells and Organization of Living Things

Kick off your Middle School Life Science curriculum with a clear, engaging, and logically sequenced introduction to cells and the organization of living things.

This Cells and Organization of Living Things resource bundle is designed to serve as the first unit in a complete Middle School Life Science Curriculum.

Rather than giving teachers a collection of disconnected resources, the unit provides a suggested 10–15 day teaching sequence that builds student understanding step by step.

Designed to support NGSS MS-LS1-1 and MS-LS1-2, the unit includes lessons, lab station activities, digital activities, readings, games, video worksheets, story prompts, review activities, and assessment materials.

A Logical Teaching Sequence

The included Daily Teaching Schedule provides teachers with a suggested pathway through Unit 1 so that concepts are introduced in an intentional order.

Students progress through:

What Makes Something Alive? → Introduction to Cells → Exploring Cells → Cells in Context → Viruses and Cells → Cell Organelles → Organelle Structure and Function → Cell Membrane and Transport → Cell Review and Application → Unit Test

Topics Covered Include:

• Characteristics of Living Things
• Introduction to Cells
• Animal and Plant Cells
• Unicellular and Multicellular Organisms
• Viruses and Cells
• Cell Organelles
• Cell Organization
• Organelle Structure and Function
• Cell Membrane Structure and Transport
• Diffusion and Osmosis
• Cell Review and Application

Resources Included in the Unit:

• What Makes Something Alive Lesson
• Animal and Plant Cells Lesson
• Unicellular and Multicellular Organisms Digital Interactive Notebook Pages
• Introduction to Cells Station Activity
• Bill Nye Cells Video Worksheet
• Crash Course Biology: Why We Aren’t Just One Big Cell
• Science Story Prompt: Maya and the Remarkable World of Cells
• Viruses Reading
• Case Study – How Viruses Make Us Sick
• Cellular Organelles Lesson
• Cell Organization Digital Interactive Notebook Pages
• Cellular Organelles Structure and Function Lab Station Activity
• Cell Membrane and Transport Lesson
• Diffusion and Osmosis Through Cell Membrane Digital Interactive Notebook Pages
• Cell Organelles Scavenger Hunt
• Cell Organelle Card Matching Game
• Cells and Cell Organelles BINGO
• Cells and Organelles Word Sprint Game
• Crash Course Biology: A Tour of the Cell Video Worksheet
• Cells and Organelles Word Search and Scramble
• Function of Cells Station Activity
• Science Story Prompt: Tanisha and the Cell Explorer
• Unit Test
• Daily Teaching Schedule

This gives you the structure of a planned curriculum while still allowing you to adapt the unit to the needs of your classroom.

NGSS Alignment

This unit supports:

MS-LS1-1: Conduct an investigation to provide evidence that living things are made of cells, either one cell or many different numbers and types of cells.

MS-LS1-2: Develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function.

Start Your Life Science Curriculum with a Strong Foundation

As Unit 1 of the Middle School Life Science curriculum, Cells and Organization of Living Things establishes the foundational ideas students will build on throughout the course.

Instead of spending time deciding what to teach first, what activity should come next, or how to connect individual resources, you'll have a logical teaching sequence already mapped out for you—while still maintaining the flexibility to adjust the unit for your own students and classroom.

Teach the content in sequence, choose from the included activities, adjust the pacing when needed, and move confidently into the next unit of your Middle School Life Science curriculum.

I also have a range of assignments and lessons/units from other grade levels at my store. Please CLICK HERE to have a look around and don’t forget to follow if you like what you see.