How it works
A winter word scramble about snow and cold, not holidays. Each of the 30 words comes jumbled, with a clue such as "A shelter built of snow blocks" under it, and a separate answer key follows.
Read the full guide
Short, medium and long lists
Sled, Hat and Coat are warm-ups on the easy list. The page opens on the medium list, Frost to Penguin. On the hard list, Hibernate and Thermometer have 9 and 11 letters: good for grade 4 and up.
Two ways to use a sheet
Hand it out as a quiet task for the first cold week back in January, or press Play and solve one word at a time on the board. The Hints switch takes the clues away for stronger spellers.
- Pair Hibernate with a science lesson: the clue says what it means, and the class can name animals that do it.
- Snowplow, Snowball and Snowdrift all start with snow; a word bank at the foot helps younger solvers tell them apart.
Questions and answers
What age are these winter word puzzles for?
With clues on, the easy list of 3- to 6-letter words suits kindergarten and first grade. Grades 2 and 3 can take the medium list, and the 8- to 11-letter hard list is for grade 4 and up.
Are there Christmas words in these puzzles?
No. These lists keep to weather, clothes, animals and sports of winter, so they work in any class in January. For Christmas words, the word scramble maker has a winter holidays list.
Could a pupil find a different real word?
Not from these letters. Each word was run against a dictionary for anagrams, and words such as snow (sown) and boots (boost) were dropped, so the key has one answer per line.