How to play the Thanksgiving word search
Find each word from the list hidden in the grid. Drag across it, or tap its first and last letter, and it is marked in colour and crossed off. Find them all to stop the clock. New puzzle makes another grid with a different mix of words, so there is always one more while the turkey cooks.
Print it for the table
- Print puts the puzzle on screen onto one page.
- Print with answers opens the same puzzle on the printable word search page, with the answer key on its own page. Print 3 or 5 different Thanksgiving puzzles there for the kids’ table, so nobody can copy, or switch on large print.
- Choose Save as PDF in the print window to keep the pages as a file.
Which level?
- Easy: 8 words in a 10 × 10 grid, across and down only, for younger children.
- Medium: 12 words in a 12 × 12 grid that can also run diagonally.
- Hard: 16 words in a 15 × 15 grid, in every direction and backwards, for teenagers and adults.
The Thanksgiving words
About thirty-five words go into the puzzles. There is the meal: turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry, potatoes, yams, rolls, casserole and pecan and pumpkin pie. There is the day: family, friends, dinner, the parade, football and the wishbone. There are autumn things such as the acorn, gourd, squash and falling leaves; the feeling of being thankful and grateful; and the history: the Pilgrims, the Mayflower, Plymouth and the Wampanoag.
A little history for the classroom
The American holiday looks back to a harvest feast in the autumn of 1621 at Plymouth Colony, where the English settlers who had come on the Mayflower, remembered as the Pilgrims, ate together with Wampanoag people. Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. Canada has its own Thanksgiving, on the second Monday of October.
Ideas for Thanksgiving
- Before dinner: print a few Easy puzzles to keep younger guests busy.
- In class before the break: print a set on Medium, one different puzzle per table.
- A thankful puzzle: ask everyone for one thing they are thankful for, and turn the list into a puzzle with the word search maker.
More holiday puzzles: the Christmas word search and the Halloween word search. For other themes, go to the word search.