FREE Holiday Countdown Puzzles - Important Information

So in just a couple days, I will begin posting some free Holiday Countdown puzzles for elementary students. You can come back for 25 days in December to download a free puzzle each day! But I wanted to let you know about a couple of things before all the excitement begins.

First, I have created a cover page that you can download and print now. You could give your kids a 3 ring binder for storing their Holiday Countdown puzzles and this can be the cover page! They can take the next couple of days to color it in. Just click the picture above to download the cover from Google Drive.

Next, I have created a set of tips for solving these puzzles. They are just word searches, but the leftover letters in each puzzle also contain a hidden word or phrase. This makes them just a little trickier to solve as you have to circle the words you find carefully! Anyhow, on to the tips!

SOLVING TIPS: 

1) Use a highlighter to ‘circle’ the words you find. This will help keep everything neat and tidy so you can find the leftover letters which form the hidden words at the end! 

2) ALWAYS remember to cross words you have found off the Word List. 

3) Don’t circle words if they aren’t on the list! Sometimes you might find a word like ‘hat’ and it’s just part of other words that are near each other. You might also find a word like ‘hair’ that is not on the list, but the word ‘chair’ is and that’s the word you actually need.  

4) These word searches are shaped, so that they will look like Christmas trees, ornaments or presents. This means that there are some weird angles in some of them. Be on the lookout for words that stretch across diagonal edges and so might be harder to see! 

5) Look for letters that don’t often appear in words, like J X Y or Z. Check the word list for words that contain those letters, and if you see them in the grid, try to figure out which word they are part of. Every letter in each puzzle is used in either the Word List or the Hidden Words. 

6) If you are having trouble finding some of the last few words, check to see if the unused letters are starting to make sense. Wherever a letter doesn’t fit in the hidden words, it will be part of one of the words you have missed. 

7) When all the words have been found, go back and carefully circle all the leftover letters in pen. This will spell out the final hidden word or phrase. The phrases are either something that you do during Christmas or part of a popular holiday song or poem. So, once you see the beginning of the leftover letters, you may be able to figure out the phrase!

I threw a couple sample photos in there to help illustrate what I mean. They are also a sneak peek at what the puzzles look like!

I posted last week that I would be making these available in my TPT shop. You can download the whole set right now and get them ready ahead of time for your kids! Just click the picture above to go to TPT.

I hope these word searches get your kids excited for the holiday!

New Hampshire Puzzles

New Hampshire puzzles are finally here! I've been working on these for months...got a case of the shingles and had to table them for a while, but they are finally ready! 

These puzzles sets come in 2 versions. There is a lower elementary version covering 2nd and 3rd graders (perhaps 1sts with some help) and an upper elementary version for 4th - 6th. I believe middle school kids would also enjoy the upper level puzzles. I try not to use clip art that is too cutesy, and the puzzles should still be challenging enough for 7th-8th grades. 

Just click on the pictures above to go to my TPT store to purchase these. I have them priced at $5 which is a little higher than most of my puzzle sets, because these take a lot more time to research and write. You can find all the states that I have available so far by clicking here.

There is also a sale going on right now at TPT and all my products are on sale at 20% off plus another 5% bonus savings from TPT!

Will Shortz - Crossword Puzzle Editor

Just a brief note....Will Shortz, the editor of the New York Times crossword is celebrating his 30th anniversary as editor! Today's newsletter had a little interview with him. Here's one question that I rather enjoyed reading.

...

David: Crossword puzzles have remained popular for more than a century. Why do you think that is?

Will: Every kind of puzzle has its own appeal. I think, as human beings, we’re hard-wired to be problem solvers.

Crosswords are especially popular though, because they’re so flexible. They can be made easy, medium or hard. They can be small or large. Straightforward or tricky. Modern or classic. There’s a crossword for everyone.

The pattern of black-and-white squares is alluring. As humans we like to fill empty spaces. It’s curiously satisfying to fill in the white squares.

Finally, I’ll say that crosswords are especially well-suited to the modern age, in which the world moves at lightning speed and our minds race from one thing to the next. A typical crossword has 76 or so answers, each on a different subject. The brain jumps from topic to topic to topic. Crosswords today feel more attuned to the times than ever.

...

And if you are interested in learning more and solving some free puzzles by Mr Shortz, there is also a lovely article here.

FREE Holiday Countdown Word Searches

I decided to do a set of holiday countdown puzzles this year! First thing to know is that they are all FREE! Yay! Second thing to know is that I will be releasing one each day from Dec 1st through Dec 25th on the blog. So you can download a new puzzle each day for your kids to complete. Third thing to know is that I will also be posting the complete set of puzzles in my TPT store today, Nov 24th 2023, so that teachers can download, print and prepare for the month a wee bit ahead of time! Now, parents are also allowed to download things from TPT, so please help yourself to that too. It is for everyone! You just need a TPT account to download from there. 

To download the entire set, just click on the picture above to go to TPT!

For those of you who like a little mystery, don't forget to come back each day in December to collect your free daily puzzle!

Thanksgiving Mazes

Thanksgiving is just a few short days away! Do you need something to keep your kids busy while you cook the meal? Do you want to send a fun activity home with your students for the long weekend? 

You can create a cute Thanksgiving Maze with just a few clicks, a paper cutter, and a stapler. Download this fun set of mazes from Teachers Pay Teachers for just $4.00! There are two options for creating the book. You can choose to print a full page sized book or a half page sized mini-book. If you choose the full page option, you can just order the pages and staple them together. If you go for the mini-book, you will need to cut all the pages in half before ordering and stapling. Either option is fairly quick and easy to put together! You can also choose to include the answer keys with the books or not. 

There are 26 mazes in this collection all about Thanksgiving. Each page is dedicated to one letter of the alphabet and includes cute clip art from Educlips, a fantastic artist from TpT! There are also 17 different styles of mazes to solve, including grid, spiral, and shaped. 

I also have puzzle books about Thanksgiving for grades K-6. I have mini-book collections and teeny tiny books too! Each puzzle book is filled with a variety of puzzles, including word play, visual distinction, and math fun! You can find all my Thanksgiving related products on TpT by clicking this link.

You can also download a variety of free Thanksgiving puzzles right here on the blog. Just click this link for a list of all the puzzles I have available!

I hope you get to spend your holiday with friends and family, and enjoy some great foods too!