CraftdotThanksgiving Word Search in Large Print: 3 Free Puzzles With Answer Keys
Three Thanksgiving word searches in capitals that measure 6.7mm, each with its own answer key. Free PDF, Letter and A4, light on ink, no signup.
No email or signup. Printing instructions are below.
On this page
Three Thanksgiving word searches, set in letters big enough to read across a lit room, with an answer key behind each one. The puzzles are The Parade and the Game, Cooking the Feast, and Around the Table. Print the pages that match your paper and that is the whole job.
Large print ought to come with a number. Here is ours: the capitals on these sheets measure 6.7mm on US Letter and 6.4mm on A4, a shade over a quarter of an inch, and the file refuses to build at all if they would come out under 4.5mm. The program that draws the grid checks that before it will make the file, so the sheet has to pass it.
Download: Thanksgiving word searches in large print, free PDF, Letter + A4. No signup, no tricks.
What is in the file
Twelve pages, which is the same six sheets drawn twice: once at US Letter and once at A4. Print the six that match the paper in your tray and ignore the rest. Letter comes first.
The six are the three puzzles, then the three answer keys in the same order.
- The Parade and the Game. Trombone, confetti, halftime and nine more.
- Cooking the Feast. Baster, giblets, drumstick and nine more.
- Around the Table. Wishbone, trivet, tablecloth and nine more.
Twelve words to a puzzle in a twelve-by-twelve grid, running across, down and diagonally, forwards and backwards. It is an ordinary word search. Nothing sneaky in it.
The answer keys are their own pages so you can hold them back. On a key the found words stay solid black with a line ruled through each, and every other letter fades to a soft grey, so the answers read at a glance instead of becoming a second puzzle.
What you need
Plain printer paper is right for this one. There is nothing to cut out, so card stock only makes it cost more and jam when it stacks. A pen is fine; a soft pencil is kinder if someone might want a second go at the same sheet.
Printing a stack for the table
If you are running off enough for everyone, two things are worth knowing before you start.
Set the printer to Actual Size rather than Fit to Page. Fit to Page quietly shrinks the sheet by a few percent, and a few percent off the letters is the one thing this file exists to avoid.
A puzzle page comes out under 8% ink, and an answer page is not the cheap one though it looks it: it still prints every letter in the grid, the found words in black and the rest in grey, so it costs nearly as much. A set of three is cheap to run either way. A photocopier handles the puzzle sheets well, because every letter is solid black with nothing behind it and nothing goes muddy on the third copy. The answer keys use grey on purpose and will copy less crisply, which is worth knowing before you feed thirty through.
And if someone finds twelve words heavy going, hand them the key as a hint sheet rather than a scorecard. Reading a word off the answers and then hunting it down in the grid is still the same nice bit of searching, and nobody has to sit there feeling stuck.
Why these three lists
A Thanksgiving word list can reach straight for the school pageant. Pilgrims, the Mayflower, gratitude. Those are fine words for a classroom in October and they are not really the day.
So these three stay inside the day you actually have. The morning in front of the television, with the balloons and the marching band and then the game. The kitchen at full tilt, down to the baster and the giblets. And the table itself, where the good words live anyway: wishbone, trivet, tablecloth, seconds, and the napping that follows.
Grace and seconds and napping are in there on purpose. They are the ones people smile at when they find them, and a list of nothing but nouns makes for a duller half hour.
If these go down well, the large-print Christmas word searches are the same big letters with three December lists, and the everyday large-print word searches are the same again with nothing seasonal about them, for the rest of the year. Everything else we give away is on the free printables page.
For a group game after the puzzles, try the Canadian Thanksgiving trivia cards. The question and answer cards are separate.
Common questions
How big are the letters in these Thanksgiving word searches?
The capitals measure 6.7mm on US Letter and 6.4mm on A4, a shade over a quarter of an inch. The program that draws the grid refuses to make the file at all if the letters would come out under 4.5mm, so the size is checked rather than promised. Print at Actual Size, not Fit to Page, which quietly shrinks the sheet by a few percent.
Do the puzzles come with answer keys?
Yes, each of the three puzzles has its own answer key on a separate page, so you can hold the answers back. On a key the found words stay solid black with a line ruled through each, and every other letter fades to a soft grey, so the answers read at a glance. If someone finds twelve words heavy going, hand them the key as a hint sheet rather than a scorecard.
How much ink do these puzzles use?
Very little. A puzzle page comes out under 8% ink, and an answer page is not the cheap one though it looks it: it still prints every letter in the grid, the found words in black and the rest in grey, so it costs nearly as much. A set of three is cheap to run either way. Plain printer paper is right, since there is nothing to cut out and card stock only makes it cost more and jam when it stacks. The puzzle sheets photocopy cleanly too, though the answer keys use grey on purpose and copy less crisply.
