Free Word Search Maker

Free Word Search Maker

A really useful tool, if you have a child who likes word searches, is a free word search maker aka a word search generator.

There are a number of different types on the internet.

Why would this be useful?

Although you don’t want to spend all your time creating and solving word searches, they do have their place.

  1. Familiarising your child with words for spelling
  2. Familiarising your child with specific vocabulary
  3. To expand your child’s vocabulary generally
  4. A useful way for your child to exercise their brain
  5. It’s good for pattern recognition
  6. They are fun to do

List of Free Word Search Makers

 

Super teacher worksheets

I’ll start with the one which is probably my favourite – it is from Super teacher worksheets.

https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/generator-word-search.html

Just choose the level and then fill in your words.  There are 3 levels to choose from, basic, intermediate and advanced and each one shows you the options you can have.  However, if you want more freedom to choose you need to look at some of the other word search makers.

Word Search Puzzle Generator
Word Search Puzzle Generator

Image from  https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/generator-word-search.html

The thing I really like about this one is that it gives you a smart set of worksheets and the solution – here’s my example

https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/custom/?ws=hrSpS

 

atozteacherstuff word search

Here is another very straightforward example

http://tools.atozteacherstuff.com/word-search-maker/wordsearch.php

You just need to fill in the options.

Image from http://tools.atozteacherstuff.com/word-search-maker/wordsearch.php

Note the advice about checking it for inappropriate words.  I suspect that it is not just the atozteacherstuff word search that has this problem.

Here I have chosen forward words only but you could have backwards words only or a mixture.

Then this is what it looks like:

Image from http://tools.atozteacherstuff.com/word-search-maker/wordsearch.php

Puzzlemaker at Discovery Education

Another popular puzzle maker is at

http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/WordSearchSetupForm.asp

The final puzzle looks like this

Image from: http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/WordSearchSetupForm.asp

I used the same list of capitals as in the last example, but you can see it looks much harder.  However, don’t forget I only chose forward words in the last example.

Here is the word list:

Image from: http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/WordSearchSetupForm.asp

You should be able to click on solution and get a worked example but that doesn’t seem to work for me.

The sheet to input your material looks like this

This is the top of the puzzle maker form
Puzzle Maker

Image from: http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/WordSearchSetupForm.asp

Here is a video talking you through the process.

How to make a free Word Search using Discovery Puzzlemaker

Word lists

I find it useful to create my wordlist in Excel first so I can reuse them in different puzzle makers, or choose different numbers when I have a long list.

Talking of Excel here is a video of using Excel to create a Word Search Puzzle.  I used to use this method quite a lot myself. It takes longer but I have more freedom to do what I want with it. However, these days I generally prefer to just use Excel to keep my word lists in and then use one of the automatic word search generators.

How to Create a Word Search Puzzle in Excel – Tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcoWS8EGywI

Useful Word searches that have already been created

 

The Word Search . Com

https://thewordsearch.com/

There is a word search maker here but you have to type each word in separately.  This may be useful if you want your child to type in a spelling list or a list of specialised vocabulary.

Also, the puzzles only stay on the site for 30 days, so you must print them out if you want to keep them for longer.

However, what I really like about this site is all the word searches that are already there.

Browse through the categories at https://thewordsearch.com/ or search at https://thewordsearch.com/search/

Image from https://thewordsearch.com/

ESL – but useful for everyone

These words searches are created for children who are learning English as a Second Language but actually they are very useful for all children.

https://bogglesworldesl.com/wordsearches.htm

Lots more ESL wordsearches here to browse through.

For More Word Searches

Printable word searches collected on Pinterest

Monster Word Search

Education.com Word Searches

Topical

If you have an interest in the World Cup

http://allfreeprintable.com/russia-world-cup-teams-word-search

For a software option that you can use offline

http://www.csfsoftware.co.uk/WrdSrch_info.htm

Get in touch

There are lots more word searches I could have included – let me know your favourites below in the comments.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing from you!

Julia

PS  Click here if you are interested in spelling activities for younger children.

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8 thoughts on “Free Word Search Maker”

  1. This is such a cool tool to teach new words to kids. English is a second language in my country and it’s always nice to have new techniques to trigger children’s learning behavior.

    I will certainly use the free tools you suggest – and get my colleagues to do so – for their classes. Thanks for sharing!

    1. Thank you Cathy!  I am really glad you found this useful.  Please let me know if there are any other topics you would like addressing.  I have over 25 years of experience in education, at various levels.

  2. Such an awesome article. This reminds me when I was a kid and I wanted to learn new words and phrases. I am even doing it now sometimes when I am bored. It is a great tool for kids because it is important that it is interesting while they learning. That is how kids should be learning, nothing on force.

  3. My daughter loves doing word searches, so I am definitely going to have a look at this. At the moment she is restricted to doing word searches from magazines when I get them.  At least with this app we can now design our own and she can play more often.

    I think it is a great way to keep kids entertained, and learning at the same time. I guest you could even do names of their favorite pop stars and bands in there to make it more enjoyable for them.

    1. Hi Michel,

      Absolutely,  she could make up her own lists.

      She could do some just for fun and do some for school work – or mix and match the two – eg pop stars and physics terms, or whatever is appropriate for her age.

      In fact that has now given me an idea!!

      All the best,

      Julia

  4. oh … these tools are fantastic.  I’m surprised they’re free?!

    I’m not a teacher but these are great for having fun with with the whole family.  After our big family lunches on Sundays, we usually want to play games.  But it’s hard picking one that is not too taxing for the little ones and not too dummied down for the rest.  But these offer a break from the usual board games.  They can still involve fun interaction when we’re teaming up.  

    Particularly love creating puzzles like the European capital cities one.  The adults will have to know their world cities (helps them refresh their geography knowledge) … the little ones will learn to spot the letters … your free tools are giving me a whole lot of exciting family fun ideas, Julia!  We love our friendly familial competitions and these can offer great educational moments.  Thank you for sharing the links.

    1. Hi Cath,

      What a great idea.

      My brother once set one up for my niece’s party using the names of the children who came to the party – they loved it!

      Julia

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