Word Search for Kids

Short everyday words (animals, food, the sea, the garden, the weather), six letters at most, on a 10×10 grid. Words only run left to right and top to bottom, so a child who reads across and down will find every one. Tapping the first and last letter works as well as dragging, which helps small hands on a tablet.

How to play

Every word in the list is hidden in the grid, in a straight line.
Drag across a word from its first letter to its last. On a phone you can also tap the first letter, then the last.
Found words stay highlighted and are crossed off the list. Find them all to finish.
Easy puzzles only run left to right and top to bottom. Medium adds diagonals. Hard runs in all eight directions, backwards too.

Levels

Level	Grid	Words	Directions
Easy	10×10	8	across and down
Medium	12×12	12	across, down and diagonal
Hard	14×14	16	every direction, backwards too

Questions

What age is this for?

Children who can read short words on their own, roughly 5 to 9. Younger children can play with a grown-up reading the list aloud.

Are there holiday puzzles for kids?

Yes: the Christmas word search for kids uses short, easy Christmas words.

Can I print one for class?

Yes. The printable version has a larger 12×12 grid and an answer key on a second page.

Does every word appear only once?

Yes. After the letters are filled in, every word is checked in all eight directions; a board where a word shows up twice is thrown away.

Hide a secret in a puzzle