How it works
- Pick a word set, such as animals, the farm or Halloween.
- Leave out any words you don’t want by tapping them.
- Tick the puzzles you want, and choose a theme for the page border.
- Download one PDF with every puzzle, then the answer keys at the back.
Why pictures help early readers
A picture tells a child what the word means before they can read it. Matching the picture to the word, finding it letter by letter in a grid and writing it in crossword squares all make children look closely at the letters of a word they already understand. That is how new words start to stick.
Four puzzles from one word set
Picture word search
The word bank shows each word with its picture. Words run across, down or diagonally, never backwards.
Match the pictures
Pictures on one side, words on the other, in a different order. Children draw a line from dot to dot.
Picture crossword
Each numbered clue is a picture. Children say the word, then write one letter in each square.
Colour and trace
A big outline picture to colour, its word to trace, and an empty line to write it alone.
Curriculum links in England
- ReceptionThe Comprehension goal expects children to use recently introduced vocabulary when talking about stories, non-fiction and rhymes.
- Word readingReception children read words consistent with their phonic knowledge by sound-blending.
- Year 1Pupils spell words using the sounds they have been taught and learn the letters of the alphabet in order.
The EYFS framework stresses that widening vocabulary supports later reading comprehension, and sets such as the farm, under the sea and space suit the topic-based planning many Reception and Year 1 classes in England use each half term.
The picture lets a child say a word before reading it. In a phonics classroom the next step is to sound the word out rather than guess from the picture, so point to the letters too, and leave out words with sounds your class hasn’t met yet.
Summarised in our own words from the EYFS statutory framework and the National Curriculum in England: English programmes of study (DfE).
