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