A 13 by 13 grid with eighteen winter words in it, running across, down and diagonally, and the list of them printed underneath. The words are winter rather than Christmas: blizzard, earmuffs, fireside, ice rink, log fire, sledging, thermos and wool hat among them.
The grid size picks the words
There is one pool of winter words and the grid decides which end of it you get. At 10 by 10 the puzzle takes the short entries: sled, snow, boots, cocoa, frost, scarf, skate. At 13 by 13 it moves on to blizzard, December, earmuffs, fireside, hot cocoa and sledging.
At 20 by 20 it takes the long end, which is where the interesting ones live: tobogganing, hibernation, temperature, snowplough, frosty morning and snowball fight. Those are the ones worth putting in front of an adult.
Nothing appears twice in a different coat. The pool holds mittens but not mitten, icicles but not icicle, so the eighteen words on a sheet are eighteen separate things rather than fifteen things and three plurals.
What the controls actually change
Grid runs from 10 by 10 to 20 by 20 and Words from ten to thirty-five, and the two move independently, so you can have long words in a small count or short ones in a big grid. Directions has three settings: across and down, plus the two diagonals, or all eight with every reverse included.
Word bank switches the list under the grid off, which turns the sheet into a hunt for winter words nobody has named. Answer key rings every word in red, which is for checking a stuck child against rather than for printing.
A different sheet for every child
Regenerate lays the grid out again from scratch with the same word list, so thirty presses give thirty different puzzles and nobody can copy from the desk next door.
For a group racing each other, do the opposite and print one grid thirty times. Different grids and a stopwatch do not belong in the same room.
Questions
- What words are in the winter word search?
- Eighteen on the settings the page opens with, among them blizzard, December, earmuffs, fireside, frosted, hot cocoa, ice rink, log fire, mittens, skating, snowman, thermos and wool hat.
- Are the words about Christmas?
- No. The list is winter and snow: weather, warm clothing, sledging and skating, hot drinks and log fires. It makes as much sense in February as it does in December.
- Can I pick a different word list?
- Not on this page, which is fixed to the winter pool, which is why there is no word list control above the sheet. The grid, the word count and the directions are all still yours to set.
- How do I make it easier for a young child?
- Drop Grid to 10 by 10, which brings in short words such as sled, snow, boots and scarf, and set Directions to across and down so nothing runs backwards or on a diagonal.
- Is there an answer key?
- Yes. Set Answer key to Shown and every hidden word is ringed in red on the grid. Switch it back to Hidden before you print the copies the children are going to get.