Back to school Word Search
- SCISSORS
- CALENDAR
- HOMEWORK
- LIBRARY
- RECESS
- PENCIL
- CAFETERIA
- COMPASS
- STAPLER
- DESK
- FOLDER
- SCHEDULE
Created for free at puzzleandprint.com
Back to School Word Search
Pencils, schedules and the first week back.
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Back to school Word Search, Answer Key
- SCISSORS
- CALENDAR
- HOMEWORK
- LIBRARY
- RECESS
- PENCIL
- CAFETERIA
- COMPASS
- STAPLER
- DESK
- FOLDER
- SCHEDULE
Created for free at puzzleandprint.com
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Four sheets, each with a different job. Every one is a two-page PDF, the puzzle, then the answer key on its own page.
Back to school word search, large print11 × 11 · 7 words · EasyDownload PDF ↓
Back to school word search, everyday14 × 14 · 11 words · MediumDownload PDF ↓
Back to school word search, more words15 × 15 · 14 words · MediumDownload PDF ↓
Back to school word search, challenge17 × 17 · 15 words · HardDownload 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.
September vocabulary earns its place because children need it immediately. Sharpener, binder, schedule and locker are words that appear on the first day and get used every day after, and a child who can read them navigates the week more easily.
It is a settling activity as much as a teaching one. The first days back are long on administration and short on things for early finishers to do, and a sheet built from the room around them is easier to hand out than one that needs explaining.
On these sheets the routine of the school day mostly arrives after the things in the bag. The large print sheet keeps to the pencil case, the BACKPACK and the TEACHER, RECESS and HOMEWORK first appear on the more words sheet, and LESSON, ASSEMBLY and SUBJECT are only on the challenge sheet, so a younger child meets the objects first and the schedule afterwards.
For a homeschool setting the four sheets make a September reset that climbs over a few days: seven words running only across and down on the 11 by 11 large print sheet, then eleven and fourteen words with diagonals added, then fifteen on a 17 by 17 grid where words also run backwards. Every sheet carries at least one word over from the one before, so no step starts from nothing.
Why nine back-to-school words end in er
Nine of the back-to-school words end in er because each names a person or thing by what it does: a RULER rules lines, an ERASER erases, a TEACHER teaches, a MARKER marks, a FOLDER folds, a LOCKER locks, a SHARPENER sharpens, a STAPLER staples and a BINDER binds. The er ending is one of the most useful a young writer can learn, and this list gives nine examples in one place. Two of them carry a spelling rule as well: ERASER and STAPLER add only an r, because erase and staple already end in e, the same rule a child will meet again in writer and baker.
CALENDAR is the trap for anyone who has just learned that pattern, since it ends in ar, not er, and a child who has spent the morning on the other nine will reach for the wrong ending. SCISSORS has four Ss in eight letters, a c after the first that is not sounded, and is always treated as a plural. LIBRARY keeps an r after the b that many people drop when they say it, which is why it is so often written with one r missing. All three are on the everyday or more words sheets, and between them they make a fair spelling test for the end of the first week.
What makes the challenge back-to-school sheet hard
The challenge back-to-school sheet is hard because its fifteen words can run in all eight directions, and that lets BUS turn up inside SUBJECT: read SUBJECT backwards and its last three letters spell BUS. Because backwards is one of the eight directions, that hidden BUS is on the grid wherever SUBJECT lands, but the answer key marks BUS in squares of its own, so a child who circles the one inside SUBJECT has found a real BUS the key does not show. BUS, at three letters, is the shortest word on the list. Asking a class to find it first, then showing them both places it can be read, is a quick lesson in why reading backwards is a skill of its own.
The other three school sheets move from the bag to the building. The large print sheet is the BACKPACK, the NOTEBOOK, the pencil case and what is in it, and the TEACHER, seven words that run only across and down on an 11 by 11 grid. The everyday sheet adds CLASSROOM, LIBRARY, LUNCHBOX and SCISSORS, and the more words sheet reaches PLAYGROUND, LOCKER and RECESS along with READING, SPELLING and HOMEWORK. PLAYGROUND, at ten letters, is the longest word on any of the four sheets; WHITEBOARD matches it but is on none of them, along with CAFETERIA, SCHEDULE, FRIENDS, PRINCIPAL, COMPASS and ATLAS, all of which the maker above can still draw on.
Common questions
When should this go out?
Before school starts rather than after. The large print sheet is built from the seven words a child is about to need first, PENCIL, RULER, ERASER, CRAYON, BACKPACK, NOTEBOOK and TEACHER, and six of them are things a child can lay out on the table the night before, so the finished sheet doubles as a check that the new bag is ready.
Is this useful on the first day itself?
Yes, it works on the first morning because it needs no prior knowledge and can be done alone at a desk while other children are still arriving. Each sheet prints as two pages, the puzzle and then its answer key, so printing only the first page keeps the key back, and the everyday sheet’s CLASSROOM, LIBRARY and DESK give a new child names for the places and things they are about to find.
Is there a British version of the back-to-school word search?
Not as a ready-made sheet: ERASER and BACKPACK, the North American words for a rubber and a school bag, are on the large print sheet, and RECESS, for break time, is on the more words and challenge sheets. The maker above takes your own list, so typing the words your school actually uses gives a British class a sheet in its own vocabulary in about a minute.
Want to know when new printables go up?
New printables when they go up, mostly seasonal, a few times a year.