Twenty-four animals are hidden in this word search, from big ones like the Elephant, Giraffe and Hippo to small ones like the Frog, Owl and Squirrel. It opens on Easy, so every animal runs either left to right or top to bottom, in a 14 × 14 grid with School print letters, the shapes children learn to write. It is a good first word search for early readers and a quick warm-up for older ones.
Turn it into a lesson
After the puzzle, sort the animals: which live in water, which have feathers, which hop? Children can circle the found words in different colors for each group. The answer key on the next page marks every animal, which makes checking a stack of worksheets quick.
For the youngest solvers
Delete the longest names (Kangaroo, Squirrel, Octopus) and pick Grid size 10 × 10. Fewer letters per row mean bigger letters on the page, and short words like Fox, Owl and Bear are easy wins that keep a four- or five-year-old going. Switch Letters to lowercase if the children read lowercase more easily.
Your own animals
Planning a trip to the zoo or the farm? Type the animals you’ll see, one per line, and print a puzzle to do in the car. The page names any word it couldn’t fit, and Auto grid size grows the grid until every animal has a place.
The 24 words in this puzzle
Elephant · Giraffe · Kangaroo · Penguin · Dolphin · Zebra · Tiger · Lion · Monkey · Rabbit · Squirrel · Turtle · Owl · Fox · Bear · Wolf · Camel · Koala · Panda · Hippo · Octopus · Eagle · Frog · Horse