During the COVID lockdown period, our family has been going through there has been an opportunity to develop some puzzles for the kids to keep them entertained throughout the winter holidays.
My wife and I purchased a Betty Lukens Bible-In-Felt set many years ago, and thankfully with the set came some colouring-in and activity sheets.
While the younger children enjoyed the colouring-in pages, our eldest was more attracted to the activity puzzles.
In the Betty Lukens activity folder, there were three types of puzzles available for children of all ages: word finders, cryptograms and jumbled words.
The activities on jumbled words were too easy for our eldest, the cryptograms started well but then became quite boring with continued use, which only left the word finder puzzles.
The Great Thing About Word Finder Puzzles
The great thing I observed about the kids doing the word finder puzzles is that each puzzle was different. Some puzzles were quite easy as they would only contain around 12 words to find, whereas others would around 20 words to find.
Unfortunately though once the kids would finish with the puzzle there wouldn’t be anything further for them to achieve. I did try telling them to find hidden words that Betty Lukens forgot to include in the list and there would be some extra words the kids would find and add to the list.
I think there was one puzzle we did where we were able to add an additional 20 words (these would only be 2, 3 or 4 letter length words).
But then it got me thinking – what if there was more to these puzzles for the kids to do.
Having enjoyed word finder puzzles at school and growing up I knew that some memorable word finder puzzles would be those that had a hidden word or passage left over from all the remaining letters, but what if there were a question or bible reference for the kids to answer or find?
Aha!
That gave me the idea to create some of my own word finder puzzles and to use these for the kids to use, and here is the start of this project.
How Do You Solve Word Finder Puzzles?
If you’ve never come across a word finder puzzle before then you’re about to discover how easy and enjoyable they are when you’ve got a spare moment.
The purpose of a word finder puzzle is to find all the words listed underneath the grid within the grid itself. These words could be written horizontally (left to right, or right to left), vertically (up to down, or down to up), or diagonally (in any direction).
The letters need to be connected to their next adjacent letter and when combined form the word searched.
Here is an example of finding the words within this puzzle:
Once you’ve found a word in the grid you can either circle around the entire word, or circle each individual letter making the word, or put a line through it.
If I have a pen, then I personally prefer circling each letter that forms the word as it helps to be able to read the letters when finding others in the grid. If I have a light coloured pencil or light coloured texta then I prefer using a line. A line through the word works best when you’ve made a mistake and want to check which words you’ve already found, circled letters could mean starting all over again!
However, when it comes to striking out the words in the list, I make this very clear by crossing the word out.
The purpose of circling letters or using a line to strike letters out is that it helps to reveal what is left over.
What To Do When You’ve Finished A Word Finder Puzzle?
Once you’ve finished a word puzzle you should be able to identify letters that weren’t used.
By starting from the top-left hand corner of the puzzle, you should then scroll across each row and write down each unused letter in the hidden passage section.
Once you’ve passed through line by line in the word puzzle reading from left to right your hidden passage should reveal something.
If you have more letters leftover then you’ve likely missed a word or two in the list underneath the grid. If you don’t have enough letters then you’ve likely crossed (or circled) a letter too much, go back through your words and see if you went too far with your line or circles.
If you have the right number of letters remaining you should be able to clearly read out the hidden passage from the word puzzle.
The final challenge is seeing if you know where this hidden passage can be found in the Bible (KJV). You might use a bible word or phrase search tool to help find it, but once you’ve found the passage and inserted the reference you’ve now fully completed the puzzle!
Congratulations!!
Where Can I Get These Bible Word Puzzles?
Here are some free bible word finder puzzles to whet your appetite, expect more to come over the next few weeks!
Summary
Word Finder Puzzles are a great way for the kids to be entertained with words from the Bible and to have a goal in completing the task to discover the hidden passage.
These puzzles are aimed at both enlightening and encouraging people to read God’s wondrous Word.