Farm Animals Word Search | Free Printable
About This Worksheet
Farm animals are usually among the first words a child can read, which makes them the right vocabulary for a first word search. Every word here is short, concrete and almost certainly already in your child's spoken vocabulary, so the only new skill being practised is the searching itself.
The grid is small and the words run only left-to-right and top-to-bottom. There are no diagonals and no backwards words. A child who has never completed a word search before can finish this one with a little company, and finishing it is the point.
The word bank has 6 words in a 10x10 grid: Cow, Pig, Duck, Goat, Sheep, Horse.
Skills Practiced
How to Use This Worksheet
- Read the word bank out loud together. Point at each word and say it. A child who knows what they are hunting for finds it far faster than one decoding as they go.
- Hunt one word at a time. Cover the rest of the word bank with a finger. Searching for six words at once is what makes young children give up.
- Trace across each row. Show them how to run a finger along row one, then row two. That habit is the actual skill -- it is the same systematic scanning reading requires.
- Make the animal noises. When they find COW, moo. It sounds silly and it works: linking the written word to a sound and an action is what makes it stick.
Not sure this is the right level? Our guide to free printable word search puzzles for kids walks through every age in turn — see what to expect from a word search for 4 year olds or a word search for 5 year olds, and which puzzle to print next.