Easy word search
Built for first-time solvers: a small grid, eight short words, and every word runs across or down, always forwards. No diagonals, no backwards tricks.
Curated by 
Esme Rook
·
Updated August 2026
Play it right here
Drag across the letters to select a word. Words hide across and down, in reading order. Works with mouse and touch.
Why this one is genuinely easy
Easy is a promise about mechanics, not a sticker. This grid is 10x10 instead of 12x12, the words are three to four letters (sun, moon, star, tree, fish, bird, cake, book), and they hide in two directions only: left to right, and top to bottom. Those are the directions a new reader already scans, so the puzzle trains exactly the skill the solver has.
Who it is for
Five and six year olds doing their first word hunt, and anyone learning to read English. Finding all eight without help is realistic on the first try, and that first complete win is the whole point: it is what makes a child ask for the next puzzle. When they do, the animals puzzle is the natural step up.
Print it or play it
Play it here with a finger or print the free PDF for the table. The solution sheet is included, though this is the one puzzle on the site where nobody should need it.
Frequently asked questions
Is the easy word search free to print for my class?
Yes. The easy word search is free to print for a class, a nursery, a reading group or home, in any number of copies and with no attribution required. It is the sheet infant teachers ask for most. You may not sell it or re-upload the PDF, as our licensing policy explains.
What age or reading level is the easy word search for?
Ages 5 to 7, roughly US kindergarten to grade 1, and it is the right starting point for a first ever word search. The grid is only 10x10, there are just eight words, none longer than four letters, and every word runs left to right or straight down. Nothing is backwards and nothing is diagonal.
Can a child play the easy word search on a screen?
Yes. The 10x10 grid plays in the browser and works well with a fingertip on a tablet, which suits small hands better than a pencil. Each word found is struck off the list so a new reader can see progress. The free printable PDF is there whenever paper is easier.
Is there an answer key?
Yes. A separate solution PDF marks all eight words on the same 10x10 grid, which is useful when a five year old is convinced a word is missing and you need to prove otherwise gently. Download it from the Solution button beside the puzzle.
Seven easy word searches to print, and every one keeps the same rules
The board on this page is the general one. Six more print from here, and each takes one shape of word and gives it a whole grid: three letter words, double letters, palindromes, rhyming pairs, a single starting letter and one word per vowel. Every sheet is the same 10x10 as the board above, with eight words running left to right or straight down, forwards, never diagonally and never backwards. That part never moves, because easy is a promise about mechanics rather than a sticker. What changes is what the words are made of. No word appears on two of them, and when the eight of them stop being a challenge the medium word search is the next step up.
The 10x10 board on this page
The playable board above, printed exactly as it stands: eight three and four letter words, every one of them running left to right or straight down, which makes it the one board here a five year old can finish without help.
Three letters each, the shortest sheet on the site
Every word is exactly three letters long, so a reader who can hold three letters in their head at once never has to hold four: cat, dog, jar, cup, pen, bed, key and map.
Double letters, the pair the eye skips
Every word here hides a repeated letter, which is exactly the thing a new reader slides straight over: the double T of button, the double L of yellow, the double O of spoon, the double R of mirror.
Palindromes, the same word backwards
Eight words that read the same in both directions, which turns the rule of this page into a joke: nothing on the board runs backwards, and yet every single word on it already does.
Rhyming pairs, four rhymes and eight words
The eight words are four rhyming pairs, so finding one half tells you what the other half is going to sound like: mouse and house, flight and night, snake and lake, duck and truck.
Every word begins with P
All eight start with the same letter, so the hunt collapses into one job: find a P and read on from there. This build placed every word vertically, which makes it the most orderly sheet in the set.
One word per vowel, and then some
Eight words that each begin with a vowel, two apiece for A, E and O and one each for I and U, so the vowel row gets learned by hunting for it instead of by chanting it.
Same theme, different puzzle: Easy crossword puzzle
