Summer Word Search for Kids

A summer word search for kids is a simple activity to keep kids busy and their brains active while they are on a break from school. I love activities for kids that are fun and also educational.

ARE WORD SEARCHES REALLY EDUCATIONAL?

There is more to a word search than meets the eye. It is not just an activity to keep children occupied.

Although I haven’t found any actual research to support the educational value of word searches, common sense tells me that they do offer some basic educational benefits.

Word searches can reinforce vocabulary words and children have to read and reread the words in order to find them on the list and in the search. This cannot be hurting our kids! 🙂

Learning how to scan is important for higher-level reading and scanning is a big part of word searches. Visual discrimination skills can also be learned and reinforced.

Personally I see some value in word searches and most kids enjoy doing them.

HOW TO DO A WORD SEARCH

There are actually some basic tips and steps that make finding the words in a word search easier.

Children may not know the best methods for locating the words they are looking for and can become very frustrated!

Share these easy tips with your child and they will see a lot more success when they are working on these activity sheets.

Look for double letters first. Those will typically pop off the page. So on this summer word search for kids printable you might want to start with the word, pool. Look for the double o’s.
Read each line of the word search box and see if any words are there.
Look at the surrounding letters. So first identify the first letter of the word you are searching for. Then look at each letter around that first letter and see if any of those are the second letter you need. If not, move on to the next first letter you come to and repeat.
Use your finger as you scan each line. This helps you keep your place and you are less likely to miss a word.

MORE WAYS TO HAVE FUN WITH WORD SEARCHES

If your child really enjoys doing word searches there are lots of different ways to play.

Kids can actually make their own word searches with different online programs. They can pick which words to find and can make any theme they prefer. One great program to use is on Discovery Education.
You can purchase word find books. These are perfect for family travel and I love the ones at Dollar Tree. A whole book of puzzles for only one dollar!
There are online games and apps that have word searches for every idea and theme you can imagine. These don’t require paper or pencil and are played online. I like The Word Search because it is free and you can also print their puzzles off if you prefer to not play online.