Winter Word Search

About this resource

A winter word search a young child can actually finish: small grids with big lowercase letters, a few winter words hidden across (and, on the harder puzzles, down), a pencil to circle them with, and a box under the grid to copy each word on primary lines. This is a full winter word search kit: 5 different things to do with the same words, 37 of them hidden in 8 puzzles, and the record-keeping around them. Every student page has a "My name" line at the top.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (32 pages)

• 15 student pages in 5 formats: 8 Word Search, 2 Find and Circle, 1 Missing Letter, 2 Find, Cut and Glue, 1 Make Your Own, plus a How to Find a Word page that shows a small grid with hat across and ice down, circled
• 37 winter words hidden in 8 puzzles, each in one puzzle only; grids 4x4, 4x4, 5x5, 5x5, 6x6, 6x6, 7x7, 8x8
• 3 answer keys, made from the same data as the pages
• 1 tracker (14 rows), 1 class progress grid (15 rows)
• 1 team note page and 1 home page (make your own word search, and a star to color for each day)
• 1 filled example (an invented student), 1 phrase bank (16 starters), 1 binder cover, and 6 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 Formats

1. Word Search (pages 7–14) — grids from 4 x 4 up to 8 x 8 (8 puzzles). Words are hidden across (left to right) or down (top to bottom), never backwards. One dot: puzzles 1-2, 4 x 4, three words each, hidden across only. Two dots: puzzles 3-4, 5 x 5, four words each. Three dots: puzzles 5-8, 6 x 6 up to 8 x 8, five to seven words each. The child circles the words, then copies each one in a box with a top line, a dashed middle line and a baseline.

2. Find and Circle (pages 15–16) — a word, then five words in a row; circle the two that match. The other three are real look-alike words. 12 rows.

3. Missing Letter (page 17) — a word with one letter left out and a Word Box to check with. 8 words; each blank fits exactly one word in the box.

4. Find, Cut and Glue (pages 18–19) — 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. 12 words; the words get longer from page to page (3 letters, then 4).

5. Make Your Own (page 20) — a blank 6 x 6 grid of type-in boxes: hide 4 words, fill in the other boxes, trade with a friend.

Of the student pages, only the 2 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.

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 bank word 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 37 search words are short winter words about snow, cold and cozy things, typed into this file's own word bank. If your program wants other words, the tracker and the team note have blank lines for your own.

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; 246 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

Winter 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.