Winter Word Search
- FIREPLACE
- SLED
- FROST
- SNOWDRIFT
- JACKET
- SNOWSHOE
- ICE
- SKIING
- PARKA
- BLIZZARD
- FROZEN
- GLACIER
Created for free at puzzleandprint.com
Your word search
Winter Word Search, Answer Key
- FIREPLACE
- SLED
- FROST
- SNOWDRIFT
- JACKET
- SNOWSHOE
- ICE
- SKIING
- PARKA
- BLIZZARD
- FROZEN
- GLACIER
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.
Winter word search, large print11 × 11 · 7 words · EasyDownload PDF ↓
Winter word search, everyday14 × 14 · 11 words · MediumDownload PDF ↓
Winter word search, more words15 × 15 · 14 words · MediumDownload PDF ↓
Winter 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.
Winter words cover the whole season rather than any one festival, so this suits a mixed classroom where not everyone marks the same holidays. It is the neutral choice for December, and it stays usable until March.
The list leans toward the tangible, mittens, icicle, sled, which keeps it accessible for younger children, while BLIZZARD, SNOWFLAKE and TOBOGGAN are there for the ones who want a longer word.
It holds up as an indoor activity on exactly the days you need one. Print a few at different sizes and let a child choose which to start with.
Why seven of the winter words start with snow
Seven of the forty begin with SNOW: SNOW itself, then SNOWMAN, SNOWFLAKE, SNOWBALL, SNOWDRIFT, SNOWFALL and SNOWSHOE. No other word list on the site starts more of its words with one shorter word (summer matches it, with seven on SUN), which makes this a ready-made lesson in compound words. Spotting the shared start is only half the job: SNOWBALL and SNOWFALL differ by a single letter, and both sit on the challenge grid. TOBOGGAN is the spelling most get wrong, with its double G and an OGGA in the middle that looks like a typing error. GLACIER and ICICLE both hide a soft C that reads as an S.
Much of the vocabulary splits into the weather and what you do about it. On the everyday sheet BLIZZARD and FROST are the weather while COCOA, FIREPLACE and SWEATER are the answer to it; on the challenge sheet SLEET, FLURRY and SNOWDRIFT face PARKA, FLANNEL, JACKET and EARMUFF. Sorting a finished sheet’s words into those two columns is a five-minute writing task that needs no grading.
Which winter sheet to print between Christmas and school
The four winter sheets walk through the list in order, each overlapping the one before. The large-print sheet takes the first seven words, SNOW to SKATING, on an eleven-square grid that reads only across and down. The everyday sheet runs from SKATING to PENGUIN, eleven words on fourteen squares. More words repeats the last five of those and adds nine, ending at SNOWBALL, and the challenge sheet keeps eight of them and adds TOBOGGAN, SNOWDRIFT, FLURRY, SNOWFALL, PARKA, EARMUFF and SLEET on seventeen squares, with words running backwards.
Each PDF is two pages, the puzzle and then its answer key, so a sheet can go home without its solution. For the days between Christmas and school, print more words and the challenge sheet as a pair: they share eight words, so a child who finishes the first starts the second already knowing FREEZING, CHILLY, FROZEN and SNOWBALL, with seven new words to meet on a bigger grid where some words run backwards.
Common questions
Does this work where it does not snow?
About half of it does. SNOW, ICE, SLED and IGLOO will be pictures rather than memories, but MITTENS, SCARF, CHILLY, COCOA and FIREPLACE describe winter almost anywhere. The more-words sheet travels best: eight of its fourteen words, SHIVER, SWEATER, FREEZING, CHILLY, WINTER, JACKET, FLANNEL and BOOTS, need no snow at all.
Is it a good one for the days between Christmas and school?
It is one of the better ones, because none of the forty winter words names a holiday. SNOWDRIFT, SLEET, PARKA and TOBOGGAN, all on the challenge sheet, fit the first week of January as well as they fit December, and that week is exactly when a printable is most needed and least available.
How many of the winter words start with snow?
Seven: SNOW, SNOWMAN, SNOWFLAKE, SNOWBALL, SNOWDRIFT, SNOWFALL and SNOWSHOE. They are spread across the sheets rather than bunched: large print has SNOW and SNOWMAN, the everyday sheet SNOWFLAKE, more words SNOWFLAKE and SNOWBALL, and the challenge sheet SNOWBALL, SNOWDRIFT and SNOWFALL. SNOWSHOE is on none of them, so type it into the maker to use all seven.
Want to know when new printables go up?
New printables when they go up, mostly seasonal, a few times a year.