Any topic, any week
Science vocabulary, a book’s characters, the counties of Ireland, Irish words: if you can list it, you can turn it into a word search.More puzzles
See the crossword maker and bingo cards. For pre-readers, picture puzzles have a picture beside every word.Irish curriculum links
- ReadingPhonics, word recognition and word study: spotting a word in a grid means recognising its exact letter pattern.
- WritingSpelling and word study: children see the same spelling over and over as they search.
- Topic workKey words from science, history or geography topics make a quick end-of-unit review.
Word searches are not in any Irish curriculum document, so treat them as light review rather than the main spelling practice. They work best when children use each word in a sentence once they have found it.
For an Irish class, try the counties of Munster, the rivers of Ireland, or the characters from your class novel. In a multi-class room, make the same list twice: Easy for the younger group and Hard for the older one.
Summarised in our own words from the Primary Language Curriculum (2019, NCCA).
