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Spelling word mazes

Spell the word letter by letter, again and again, to find the one way through.

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Your worksheet

Kind of maze
2 to 30 letters. Spaces and punctuation are fine; only the letters go in the grid. It stays on this device.
Squares across by squares down.
Difficulty

The other squares use letters that are not in the message, so the route never forks.

Letters
Border
Answer key
Raise this to put a different one on every page.
Up to 40 characters, printed on the sheet and its answer key. Leave it empty for the title shown.

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Your word maze

Spelling Word Maze

Letter maze · 8 × 10 · Easy

Spell JUMP over and over from START to FINISH. Move up, down, left or right, and never use a square twice.

JGALLWWLUOEEDGHIMPLGSFANUJCISALRMPTNEAITSJTJUMPHMUTPTUJEPJEMIMSEIUMURPJUOCPJATPMSTARTFINISH

Created for free at puzzleandprint.com

Spelling Word Maze, Answer Key

Letter maze · 8 × 10 · Easy

Spell JUMP over and over from START to FINISH. Move up, down, left or right, and never use a square twice.

JGALLWWLUOEEDGHIMPLGSFANUJCISALRMPTNEAITSJTJUMPHMUTPTUJEPJEMIMSEIUMURPJUOCPJATPMSTARTFINISH

Created for free at puzzleandprint.com

Or take one that is already made

Four mazes, each a two-page PDF: the maze, then the answer key with the path drawn in, on its own page.

Spelling word maze printable, first grade: JUMP, 8 by 10 grid, easySpelling word maze, first gradeJUMP · 8 × 10 · EasyDownload PDF ↓Spelling word maze printable, second grade: FRIEND, 8 by 10 grid, mediumSpelling word maze, second gradeFRIEND · 8 × 10 · MediumDownload PDF ↓Spelling word maze printable, third grade: BECAUSE, 10 by 12 grid, mediumSpelling word maze, third gradeBECAUSE · 10 × 12 · MediumDownload PDF ↓Spelling word maze printable, fourth grade: BEAUTIFUL, 12 by 15 grid, hardSpelling word maze, fourth gradeBEAUTIFUL · 12 × 15 · HardDownload PDF ↓

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A spelling word maze makes a child spell one word many times without it feeling like copying it out. The path from START to FINISH spells the word in order, then starts it again, and every step has to land on the right next letter. Spelling it wrong is not a small slip here: the wrong letter leads off the route, so the maze itself does the checking.

The sheets climb through four grades of spelling. First grade spells JUMP eight times on an 8 by 10 grid, and the other squares use only letters that are not in JUMP, so a child who knows the order can never go wrong. Second grade spells FRIEND five times on the same size of grid, Third grade spells BECAUSE seven times on 10 by 12, and Fourth grade spells BEAUTIFUL eight times along a 72 square route on 12 by 15.

From second grade up the other squares are mostly the word’s own letters, which is where the practice is. Around the FRIEND route, 39 of the 50 other squares hold F, R, I, E, N or D, so the right next letter has to be picked out from among its own kind, and in a word like BEAUTIFUL, where the vowels pile up, choosing the right one at every step is the whole exercise. Each answer key shows the route as a gray band, so checking takes a glance.

For a weekly list, type each word into the maker above and download up to five versions in one PDF, one maze per word or five mazes of the same word for a class.

What fills the other squares on each spelling maze

On the first grade sheet none of the 48 squares off the route holds a J, U, M or P, so the only decision at each step is which touching square holds the next letter of JUMP. On second grade, 39 of the 50 other squares hold one of the letters of FRIEND, on third grade 42 of the 71 hold one of the letters of BECAUSE, and on fourth grade all 108 squares off the route are letters of BEAUTIFUL.

Those numbers are the difficulty. A route surrounded by unrelated letters is a search; a route surrounded by its own letters is a spelling test, because the child has to know that U follows A in BEAUTIFUL to pick the right square when every square around it is a letter of the word.

Using spelling mazes with a weekly word list

A maze suits the middle of the week, once the words have been introduced and before the test. Type a word into the maker, keep the grid at 8 by 10 for younger grades, and raise How many versions to five to get five different mazes in one PDF, each with its own answer key behind it. Changing the word and downloading again gives the next one.

Medium is a good default for second grade and up: the false trails that start the word and stop are a fair test of whether a child is reading the letters or guessing the shape. For a child who is still sounding the word out, easy keeps every other letter out of the way. Nothing typed into the maker leaves the device.

Common questions

Can a spelling maze use a word with a double letter?

Yes. A doubled letter, as in little or balloon, simply means the route takes two touching squares of that letter in a row. Every maze is checked for a single route either way, so a double letter never creates a second answer.

How many times is the word spelled in each spelling maze?

It depends on the length of the word and the grid. On these sheets JUMP is spelled eight times, FRIEND five, BECAUSE seven and BEAUTIFUL eight. The route covers about four in ten squares of the grid and always ends on the last letter of the word.

More questions about the Word Maze Maker