Word searchesSummer
Summer word search
A summer word search made from a 32-word list including SUN, SANDCASTLE, LEMONADE and VOLLEYBALL. It is meant for road trips, camp rainy days and children who need a screen-free break.
- Type your details or print blank
- Answer key on its own page
- Print or PDF, Letter or A4
- Free, no sign-up
On this page
Summer break leaves long hours to fill: in a car, at a campsite, in the shade after lunch. This sheet is light, takes no supplies beyond a pencil, and the answer key is on a separate page so you can keep it out of sight. It opens on the Summer theme at Medium.
What prints
The first page, "Summer Word Search", has an instruction line stating how many words to find, the letter grid in a frame, and the word list in columns with an open square beside each entry. The second page is the key. It outlines each word, makes its letters bold and fades everything else.
Sample words
The list holds 32. Quick ones are SUN, HOT, SWIM, SAND, FUN, SURF, CAMP, HIKE, BIKE, WAVE, FAN and ICE. The mid-sized ones are BEACH, SANDALS, PICNIC, FIREFLY, CAMPING and HAMMOCK. The big ones are WATERMELON, SPRINKLER, SANDCASTLE, SUNSCREEN, VOLLEYBALL, LIFEGUARD, ADVENTURE and SUMMERCAMP. Since the grid fill letters leave out Q, V, X and Z, a V on the page always belongs to words like VACATION or VOLLEYBALL.
The settings
- Title (optional): name it, for example "Road Trip Puzzle, Day 2".
- Theme: pre-set to Summer; other subjects and a custom list sit in the same drop-down.
- Difficulty: Easy (10 × 10, ten words up to 8 letters, across and down), Medium (14 × 14, sixteen words, diagonals) or Hard (17 × 17, twenty-two words, backwards included).
- Large print: limits the puzzle to 12 × 12 and 12 words and enlarges the letters.
- Lowercase letters: lowercase if you prefer it.
Where it works well
On a long drive, print a few different puzzles by pressing New puzzle between prints, and clip them to a stiff board so they can be written on in the back seat. At camp, use a Hard grid as a rainy-day team challenge. For a reading log, ask children to put a star next to every word they could use in a postcard.
A short note on the season itself: the National Weather Service publishes heat safety guidance, which is worth a look before the beach and the picnic words come to life.
Worked example: a camp counselor's rainy morning
Jordan runs a cabin of ten nine-year-olds and the hike is canceled. He prints five Medium puzzles on the camp printer, each with the title "Cabin 4 Puzzle Challenge", and splits the group into pairs. A pair gets a point for each word, with a bonus for the longest one. The pair that finds SANDCASTLE first must also say what the first thing they would build is.
During the game Jordan notices that two campers keep missing FIREFLY because it runs up a diagonal. He taps the corner square where the F begins and tells them to test all four directions from every F. They find it within a minute. When all pairs are done, he pins the answer key to the wall and the cabin compares.
More summer pages
Try the large print word search for older travelers, the fall word search when school starts, or the printable word search page for the full range of 30 themes.