Thanksgiving Criss-Cross
- ABUNDANCE
- ACORN
- APRON
- BOUNTY
- CINNAMON
- GATHER
- HARVEST
- ORCHARD
- PUMPKIN
- ROASTED
- TURKEY
- YAMS
Created for free at puzzleandprint.com
Thanksgiving criss-cross puzzle
Interlock your own list, or take one of four ready-made fall grids.
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Thanksgiving Criss-Cross, Answer Key
- ABUNDANCE
- ACORN
- APRON
- BOUNTY
- CINNAMON
- GATHER
- HARVEST
- ORCHARD
- PUMPKIN
- ROASTED
- TURKEY
- YAMS
Created for free at puzzleandprint.com
Or take one that is already made
Four grids from ten words to twenty. Every one is a two-page PDF, the puzzle, then the answer key on its own page.
Thanksgiving criss-cross puzzle, starter10 words · small gridDownload PDF ↓
Thanksgiving criss-cross puzzle, everyday14 words · medium gridDownload PDF ↓
Thanksgiving criss-cross puzzle, bigger grid18 words · large gridDownload PDF ↓
Thanksgiving criss-cross puzzle, challenge20 words · full pageDownload PDF ↓Every sheet here is free to print as often as you like. If one saved you time, the tip jar is on Ko-fi.
This is the puzzle to put on the table before the meal rather than after it. A criss-cross can be done by two people at once from opposite sides of a sheet, it needs one pencil, and it does not require anyone to know anything, which makes it one of the few table activities that works across four generations without embarrassing anybody.
The word bank is what makes that possible. A crossword with clues sorts a family by general knowledge and reading level within about ninety seconds. A criss-cross gives everyone the same printed list of words and asks only where they go, so a child and a grandparent are solving the same problem with the same information.
The vocabulary here is the harvest and the table rather than any particular history: PUMPKIN, GRATEFUL, HARVEST, FEAST. That keeps it usable in a classroom in the week before the holiday, where the subject matter has to stay on the food and the season, and it keeps it usable at a table where not everyone marks the day the same way.
The sheets build toward the challenge. Its twenty words are six from the starter, twelve from the everyday sheet and two new ones, POTATOES and WHEAT, so anyone who has done the first two meets only two unfamiliar words. The bigger grid stands apart: it shares FEAST, FAMILY, GRAVY and STUFFING with the starter and no word with the other two. All four are two-page PDFs with the answer key on its own page.
Which word is the spine of each Thanksgiving criss-cross
Each Thanksgiving criss-cross sheet has one word that crosses four others, and placing it first fixes a letter in each of them: STUFFING on the starter, CASSEROLE on the everyday sheet, KITCHEN on the bigger grid and CRANBERRY on the challenge. STUFFING meets FEAST, SQUASH, FAMILY and CRANBERRY. KITCHEN, only seven letters long, meets SEASON, FEAST, TURKEY and SHARING, at four different letters. On the starter, STUFFING is also the only eight-letter word and CRANBERRY the only nine, while CORN is the only four, so counting squares alone puts three words in place before any letters are tested.
The everyday sheet is the hardest of the four to start, because it has no short words at all: its fourteen run from six letters to nine, with five of six letters and five of eight. Nine of the fourteen run down the page and only five across, so the grid reads as a row of columns hanging from ROASTED, AUTUMN, LEFTOVER, CASSEROLE and NUTMEG. CORN and ACORN make a smaller puzzle of their own: both appear on the starter and on the challenge, and on the challenge they cross each other at the R, with CORN spelled inside ACORN for anyone who looks.
Why thankful and grateful end in one L on the Thanksgiving criss-cross
THANKFUL and GRATEFUL end in a single L because the ending ful is always spelled that way, even though it comes from the word full, and the Thanksgiving criss-cross enforces it: each word has eight squares, so a ninth letter has nowhere to go. THANKFUL is on the everyday sheet and the challenge, GRATEFUL on the bigger grid. On the everyday sheet and the bigger grid the U of that ending sits on a crossing, with NUTMEG passing through THANKFUL and PUMPKIN through GRATEFUL, so the vowel of the ending is checked by a second word as well.
Double letters run through this list too. The everyday sheet has four words with one, BLESSING, CASSEROLE, CINNAMON and PLATTER, and the challenge has CRANBERRY, BLESSING, CASSEROLE and CINNAMON. BLESSING and CASSEROLE, the two words with a double S, cross each other on both of those sheets, at an E on the everyday sheet and at the L on the challenge. With a finished grid, cover it, read the words aloud, and have the class write each one and underline its doubled pair, which keeps attention on the letters the grid was checking.
Common questions
Does this work at a table with adults and children together?
Yes, and the starter splits the work well between them. Five of its ten words have five letters, FEAST, GRAVY, ACORN, MAPLE and CIDER, so counting squares cannot tell them apart; a child can read out the word bank while an adult tests each one against a letter already in the grid.
Is the vocabulary tied to a particular history?
No, none of the forty words on the Thanksgiving list is a name, a date or an event from history. Most are food and the season, from CRANBERRY and PECAN to ORCHARD and WHEAT, and most of the rest describe the gathering, such as FAMILY, WELCOME and SHARING. BLESSING is the one word with a religious sense, and it is only on the everyday sheet and the challenge, so the starter and the bigger grid leave it out.
Is turkey on the Thanksgiving criss-cross?
Yes, but of the four ready-made sheets only the bigger grid has it, the eighteen-word sheet, which is also the only one with HARVEST, PUMPKIN and GRATEFUL. There TURKEY runs down the page and crosses KITCHEN at the K.
Want to know when new printables go up?
New printables when they go up, mostly seasonal, a few times a year.