November Word Search

About this resource

A November word search a young child can actually finish, with something harder waiting for the child who finishes first. Ten puzzles in five themes (Thanksgiving, Fall, Harvest, Gratitude and November), each theme with an easy 8 x 8 grid and a harder 12 x 12 grid. Big lowercase letters, a pencil to circle with, and a place to copy each word or check it off. This is the full-size kit behind the free Thanksgiving word search: more puzzles, more words, answer keys and the record-keeping around them. Every student page has a "My name" line at the top.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (36 pages)

• 18 student pages in five formats: 10 Word Search, 2 Find and Circle, 2 Missing Letter, 2 Find, Cut and Glue, 1 Make Your Own, plus a How to Find a Word page that shows one word across and one word down, circled
• 80 November words hidden in 10 puzzles, each word in one puzzle only: 5 easy 8 x 8 puzzles (6 words each) and 5 harder 12 x 12 puzzles (10 words each)
• 4 answer keys, made from the same data as the pages
• 1 tracker (17 rows), 1 class progress grid (15 rows)
• 1 team note page and 1 home page (a word search to make at home, and a star to color for each day)
• 1 filled example (an invented student), 1 phrase bank (16 starters), 1 binder cover, and divider tabs with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here, a how-to-read-a-page page, and a contents page that gives every page number and lists the words in every puzzle

The Puzzles, By Theme

1. Thanksgiving: turkey, feast, pie, corn, roll, bread (8 x 8) and pilgrim, pumpkin, cranberry, stuffing and six more (12 x 12)

2. Fall: leaf, rake, acorn, apple, cool, wind (8 x 8) and sweater, scarf, cider, squirrel and six more (12 x 12)

3. Harvest: farm, barn, hay, seed, field, plow (8 x 8) and tractor, wheat, carrot, scarecrow and six more (12 x 12)

4. Gratitude: kind, help, hug, love, smile, thanks (8 x 8) and grateful, thankful, friends, family and six more (12 x 12)

5. November: cold, snow, soup, frost, mitten, socks (8 x 8) and november, autumn, calendar, fireplace and six more (12 x 12)

The Formats

1. Word Search (pages 7–16) — the three easiest puzzles (7–9) hide words across only; puzzles 4–5 (pages 10–11) are 8 x 8 with words across and down; puzzles 6–10 (pages 12–16) are 12 x 12 with ten words each, across and down. A word is never hidden backwards. On the 8 x 8 puzzles the child circles each word, then copies it in a box with a top line, a dashed middle line and a baseline. On the 12 x 12 puzzles each word has a check box.

2. Find and Circle (pages 17–18) — a word, then five words in a row; circle the two that match. The other three are real look-alike words.

3. Missing Letter (pages 19–20) — a word with one letter left out and a Word Box to check with. Each blank fits exactly one word in the box.

4. Find, Cut and Glue (pages 21–22) — find the word hidden in a short row of letters, cut its piece out, glue it under the row. Six pieces a page, edge to edge in two rows of three: three straight cuts. The words get longer from page to page (4 letters, then 5).

5. Make Your Own (page 23) — a blank 6 x 6 grid of type-in boxes: hide four words, fill in the other boxes, trade with a friend.

Of the student pages, only the Find, Cut and Glue pages use scissors (the divider tabs at the back are cut too). Every other student page is pencil work.

Built For The Child Holding The Page

A big "My name" line, one short instruction with a small picture, large letters and words in a rounded font, boxes with room to write, and dots (not words) to show which level a page is. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult. Every drawing is ours, and there is no clip art. This is words only: letters, grids and boxes, no pictures to color.

Puzzles You Can Trust

Every puzzle is checked in code, not by eye: each word is hidden exactly once and cannot be read anywhere else in the grid (not backwards, not on a diagonal). The filler letters are screened so no other word from the list and no dictionary word of three or more letters shows up across or down, and a check for profane strings runs forwards and backwards. The answer keys come from the same data as the puzzles.

The Words

The 80 search words are typed into this file's own word bank: everyday words for the season, from turkey and acorn to pumpkin and grateful. The longer words are on the 12 x 12 puzzles. Nothing here claims they match any program's word list. If your program wants other words, the Make Your Own page takes any words you choose.

Type In, Or Print

The name and date lines, the tracker, the class grid, the team note, the home page and the Make Your Own grid are type-in fields in any PDF reader; 261 fields in all. The letters a student circles and writes are pencil work. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file.

Who This Is For

Kindergarten, first and second grade classrooms, self-contained and resource rooms, and any teacher working with an older student who is still learning to find and read these words. The home page sends the same job to a family; the team note hands off what changed since the last meeting.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

November word search practice with the record-keeping around it. It is not a probe, a goal bank or a score sheet, not a reading assessment, and not a claim about any student's age or rate of progress. The 12 x 12 puzzles are there for the child who is ready for more; nothing says which grade a puzzle belongs to.

Also From Bright Path Sped

The same find-circle-write search with other seasons: Veterans Day Word Search, Christmas Word Search and Winter Word Search, each K-2, and a Sight Word Search for K-1 (search the store for the title).