Clothes Word Search
- DRESS
- BLOUSE
- SOCKS
- VEST
- PONCHO
- SKIRT
- SHOES
- SWIMSUIT
- MITTENS
- BONNET
- BOOTS
- SCARF
Created for free at puzzleandprint.com
Your word search
Clothes Word Search, Answer Key
- DRESS
- BLOUSE
- SOCKS
- VEST
- PONCHO
- SKIRT
- SHOES
- SWIMSUIT
- MITTENS
- BONNET
- BOOTS
- SCARF
Created for free at puzzleandprint.com
Or take one that is already made
Four sheets, each with a different job. Every one is a two-page PDF, the puzzle, then the answer key on its own page.
Clothes word search, large print11 × 11 · 7 words · EasyDownload PDF ↓
Clothes word search, everyday14 × 14 · 11 words · MediumDownload PDF ↓
Clothes word search, more words15 × 15 · 14 words · MediumDownload PDF ↓
Clothes 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.
Clothing vocabulary is concrete, daily and easy to check against the real thing, which makes it dependable early-reading material. The list covers every kind of weather, so it works at any point in the year.
Several of the words are ones children wear and misspell in the same week. PAJAMAS, SANDALS, RAINCOAT and CARDIGAN are the usual ones.
Once the sheet is finished it turns into a sorting game with no preparation: which of these would you wear in the snow, and which at the beach? That is a short piece of reasoning built on a word hunt, and for a younger child, find the word and then go and find the item is a fair game on its own.
Clothing words that come apart into two
Forty items of clothing, and the useful thing about the list is how many are two words stuck together. RAINCOAT, SWIMSUIT, BATHROBE, EARMUFFS and OVERALLS can each be taken apart into words a child already knows, which is the reading strategy worth teaching alongside the search. RAINCOAT is on the more-words and challenge sheets and OVERALLS on the challenge sheet, but SWIMSUIT, BATHROBE and EARMUFFS are on none of the four ready-made sheets and only appear if you make your own. PAJAMAS is spelled pyjamas in Britain; this list uses the American spelling. PANTS and VEST each mean a different garment on either side of the Atlantic, and SNEAKERS is the American word for what a British class calls trainers, so the sheets deserve a glance before they go to a class that has been taught the other set.
At the other end, HAT, CAP, TIE and BELT are genuinely short, three and four letters, and a list with real short words in it is easier on a beginning reader than one padded out with long ones. BLOUSE, PONCHO and BONNET are the three most children will not have written before, though only BLOUSE is on a ready-made sheet, the challenge one, and it spells its middle sound ou, the same sound as in cow.
Which clothes word search suits a five-year-old
The large-print sheet suits a five-year-old: an 11 by 11 grid holding SHIRT, PANTS, DRESS, SKIRT, SOCKS, SHOES and HAT, all running left to right or top to bottom, so no word is read backwards or on a slant. Everyday, at 14 by 14, turns to the weather with COAT, JACKET, SCARF, GLOVES and BOOTS and brings in diagonals. More words is 15 by 15 with fourteen words, MITTENS, HOODIE and SLIPPERS among them. The 17 by 17 challenge sheet hides fifteen words in eight directions, backwards included, and is the only sheet with BLOUSE, CARDIGAN, SWEATPANTS, OVERALLS, LEGGINGS, TIGHTS and SNEAKERS.
Between them the four sheets use 33 of the forty words on the list. Neighboring sheets share words, so a child moving up meets familiar ones: HAT carries from large print to everyday, five everyday words reappear on more words, and eight from more words reappear on the challenge sheet.
Common questions
Are these British or American words?
American, where the two differ. PANTS is on the large-print sheet, PAJAMAS on the everyday and more-words sheets, and SWEATPANTS and SNEAKERS on the challenge sheet. A child who says trousers, pyjamas or trainers at home is learning something true about the language rather than being confused by it.
Does this go with getting dressed in the morning?
Yes, and the large-print sheet is the one to print for it. Six of its seven words are five letters long and HAT is three, so the hunt stays short, and every word names something a child can fetch once it is circled: find SOCKS on the page, then find the socks.
Which spelling of pajamas does the sheet use?
The American spelling, PAJAMAS, which is on the everyday and more-words sheets. Only the second letter differs from the British pyjamas, so a child taught that form will recognize the word once found but may miss it while scanning for a y. For a class that writes pyjamas, the maker builds a sheet and answer key in whichever spelling your own list uses.
Want to know when new printables go up?
New printables when they go up, mostly seasonal, a few times a year.