For Teachers

Welcome, teacher. Word searches are one of the most flexible five-minute activities there are, and every puzzle on this site works on a screen and on paper. This page answers the questions schools ask us most.

Which ages is this for?

• Ages 5 to 7: the easy puzzles. Young solvers scan mostly left to right, so expect the across words to fall first and the backwards ones to take help. Finding five of twelve words is a win at this age.
• Ages 8 to 11: the core audience. Kids at this age handle diagonals and backwards words, race each other happily, and can be asked to define the words they find.
• Ages 12 and up (and adults): the medium and hard puzzles. Word searches also work well for vocabulary reinforcement in language classes: the Spanish puzzles are built from real Spanish word lists, with the Ñ on the board.

Every puzzle page lists its word count, grid size and difficulty, so you can match one to your group before you print.

A puzzle as a 5 to 10 minute activity

1. Print one puzzle per child (or per pair: hunting in pairs is louder and better).
2. Print ONE solution sheet for yourself, or keep it open on your screen.
3. Early finishers flip the sheet and write a sentence with three of the words they found.

Using the playable version

On a whiteboard or projector, the on-page puzzle turns into a whole-class game: children take turns coming up to drag a word, or call out coordinates while you drag. Nothing to install, no accounts, and it works with touch screens.

What you may print and copy

Everything, for your classroom, every year, at no cost. The exact rules are in the licensing policy, but the short version is: print and photocopy freely for teaching, never re-sell or re-upload the files. If you need a theme we do not have yet, ask us: teacher requests go first.