Word searchesWinter
Winter word search
A winter word search drawn from 32 words including BLIZZARD, MITTENS, ICICLE and HOTCHOCOLATE. It suits snow days, indoor recess and anyone looking for a quiet activity on a cold afternoon.
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- Answer key on its own page
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On this page
A snow day brings the question of what to do once the sledding is over and everyone is damp. This sheet takes five minutes to print and keeps a table of children busy while their mittens dry. It opens on the Winter theme at Medium.
What prints
The page title is "Winter Word Search". After it come an instruction line giving the word count and the directions, the grid of letters in a frame, and the word list with a small box beside each word. Page two is the answer key, where found words are circled, bold, and other letters light grey.
The words
All 32 entries are tied to the cold. Short ones: SNOW, ICE, SLED, COLD, COAT, HAT, SKI, FROST, SCARF, SOUP, FIRE, BOOT. Middle: BLIZZARD, MITTENS, SNOWMAN, FREEZING, ICICLE, SKATING, SNOWBALL, FLURRY, CHILLY, BLANKET, GLOVES, DECEMBER. Long: SNOWFLAKE, HIBERNATE, SNOWBOARD, HOTCHOCOLATE, SNOWSTORM, ICESKATES, FIREPLACE, FROSTBITE. Compounds run together without spaces.
The settings
- Title (optional): type a name such as "Snow Day Challenge".
- Theme: pre-set to Winter; the selector also lists the rest of the topics and a custom option.
- Difficulty: Easy covers a 10 × 10 grid with 10 across-and-down words; Medium covers 14 × 14 with diagonals and 16 words; Hard covers 17 × 17 with eight directions and 22 words.
- Large print: a 12 × 12 grid, 12 words or fewer, large letters.
- Lowercase letters: lowercase on the grid and list.
Cold-weather ideas
Make a cocoa-and-puzzle hour: print two grids, one Hard and one Easy, and let two generations work on the pair. Use words that name clothing, such as COAT, SCARF, GLOVES, BOOT, HAT and MITTENS, as a checklist to pack a bag before going out. A teacher can ask students to sort the found words into what you wear, what you do and what falls from the sky.
Words like BLIZZARD, SNOWSTORM and FROSTBITE can lead into a talk about staying safe in the cold. The National Weather Service has a winter weather safety page for before, during and after storms.
Worked example: indoor recess, grade two
It is 12 degrees outside and Mr. Kim's second graders cannot go out. He prints twelve Easy puzzles with the title "Indoor Recess Challenge" and puts them at three tables of four. At Easy, all words are eight letters or fewer and run across or down only, which means children can look in two ways.
One table finds SLED and SNOW within a minute, because both are short. The word SNOWMAN gives trouble. A girl realizes she has found SNOW in row three and then reads on to find MAN beside it. Mr. Kim lets her show the group how she did it. The table that finishes first takes the answer key to confirm their circles, and then each child draws the one winter word they found that they like best.
Related puzzles
If your group wants more of a challenge, move to the hard word search. The spring word search is a good follow-up for the thaw, and the word search maker lets you add the names of your own sledding hills.