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Peabody TeachFor teachers and grown-ups

Word search maker

Make a word search from your own words, in a square or a shape like a pumpkin or a heart, with a secret message in the leftover letters, a word bank (or clues) and an answer key. Then press Play to put it on the board as a game with sound. Free, no sign-in.

14 words. “Polar bear” becomes POLARBEAR. Add a clue after a colon (“snow: white flakes”) to put clues in the bank.
Grid size
Difficulty
Up to 40 letters. They fill the first leftover squares, so the letters nobody circles spell it. On the board it flies into place when the last word is found.
Sort and find: the look-alikes hide in the grid and the word bank too, so children decide which to circle.

Use this list in: bingo cards

Halloween Word SearchHalloween Word SearchNameDateTRICKORTREATCBGHOSTNLYCTMATLWPWLREVMACNTUNLIIRVSNEACOWTRLMDTBROOMSYSTGQKDECYOSCSKCTRUALRRHMSAEAOEUEQDASNOCANDYUFMAUFGKLANTERNQETAENADTNOLOPUMPKINAESWUGHFIND THESE WORDSPUMPKINGHOSTCANDYCOSTUMEWITCHBROOMSPIDERBATMOONOWLCAULDRONLANTERNTREATMASKSecret message: find every word, then read the letters you did not circle, from the top left. The first 12 spell it.Puzzle 71031Free at teach.peabody.kids
Puzzle ·
Halloween Word Search: answer keyHalloween Word Search: answer keyEvery word to find is circled. The ringed letters spell the secret message.TRICKORTREATCBGHOSTNLYCTMATLWPWLREVMACNTUNLIIRVSNEACOWTRLMDTBROOMSYSTGQKDECYOSCSKCTRUALRRHMSAEAOEUEQDASNOCANDYUFMAUFGKLANTERNQETAENADTNOLOPUMPKINAESWUGHSecret message: TRICK OR TREATPuzzle 71031Free at teach.peabody.kids
Answer key ·

To save a PDF, choose Print, then “Save as PDF” as the printer. Only the sheets print.

All 14 words are in the pumpkin, and each one appears once. The secret message (12 letters) is in the first leftover squares.

How to use it

  1. Type or paste your words, one per line, or start from a ready list: Dolch sight words by grade, months, days, number words, shapes, colors, the fifty states, or any of our 40 topic lists. Phrases work: “Polar bear” goes in as POLARBEAR.
  2. Pick a shape (square, pumpkin, heart, star, circle, diamond, tree, house, apple, cat face or triangle), a grid size from 8 to 25, and a difficulty: Easy runs words across and down, Medium adds diagonals, Hard adds backwards.
  3. Add a secret message if you like: its letters fill the first squares no word uses, so the letters nobody circles spell it. Add look-alike words to leave alone for a sorting puzzle, or write “word: clue” lines and show clues in the bank instead of words.
  4. Press Print for the puzzle and the answer key, or “Play on the board” to hunt it together on the projector. Drag across a word or tap its first and last letters; each find plays the next note of a tune, and the secret message flies into place at the end.

Ideas for class

  • Halloween party: the pumpkin with “Trick or treat” as the secret message. Play it on the board first, then hand out the printed one.
  • Sort and find: put the animals in the word list and a few foods in the look-alike box, with the rule “Circle only the animals”. Children have to read each word before they circle it.
  • Vocabulary review: type “word: definition” lines and tick “Show clues in the word bank”. Students read the clue, work out the word, then find it.
  • Sight words: choose a Dolch list and “Keep 10 at random”, press it again for each table, and use Lowercase letters with the 8 × 8 Easy grid for the youngest.
  • Whole-class race: press T for the timer and let teams take turns at the board. Each find plays a note, so the class hears how close they are.
  • Chromebook day: press “Copy a play link” on the board and post it. The puzzle opens straight onto the board on each device.

Related

Questions

How many words can I use?

Up to 40 words to find and 12 look-alikes on a sheet. A word has to fit the grid: a 10 × 10 grid takes words of up to 10 letters, and a shape holds fewer letters than the square. Words that cannot fit are listed so nothing disappears quietly.

Will a word appear twice by accident?

No. After placing your words the maker checks the whole grid in all eight directions and refills the filler letters until each word, and each look-alike, appears exactly once.

How does the secret message work?

Type a short message (up to 40 letters). After the words are placed, its letters fill the first squares that no word uses, reading from the top left, and the rest of the empty squares get ordinary filler. The sheet says how many letters to read, the answer key rings them, and on the board the message flies into a row when the last word is found. It cannot be combined with look-alike words, because their letters are not circled either.

Can I make a shaped word search?

Yes: pumpkin, heart, star, circle, diamond, tree, house, apple, cat face or triangle. Letters sit only inside the shape and the sheet draws its outline. Shapes hold fewer letters than the square, so pick a bigger grid if words are left out. Some of our themed pages open in a shape: Halloween is a pumpkin, Valentine’s Day a heart, Christmas a tree.

Can children play it on a screen?

Yes. “Play on the board” opens the same puzzle full size: drag across a word, tap its first and last letters, or use the arrow keys and Space. Each word found is highlighted with a sound, a look-alike wobbles, H lights the first letter of a word still hidden, A shows the answers, R makes a new layout and T shows a timer. “Copy a play link” gives a link that opens straight onto the board on a Chromebook or tablet.

Are the filler letters school-safe?

The filler is checked against a list of unsuitable letter runs, in every direction, and refilled if one shows up.

Can I save it as a PDF?

Choose Print, then “Save as PDF” as the printer. Each page can also be saved as a PNG under its preview. Paper is US Letter or A4.

Is my word list private?

Yes. Everything is made in your browser. Your last list is remembered on this computer only, and Share and the play link put the list after the # in the link, which browsers never send to our server. Nothing is scored or sent when children play.

What are the board’s keyboard shortcuts?

Arrow keys move the cursor, Space or Enter marks the first letter and then the last, H gives a hint, A shows or hides the answers, R makes a new layout of the same words, T turns the timer on or off, S turns sound on or off, F is full screen and Esc goes back to the sheet. If your computer is set to reduce motion, words are highlighted without drawing on and the secret message appears in place.

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