Giant Word Search Activity

Everything about this Giant Word Search was awesome.

Yup, this giant word search was as ridiculously amazing as it looks. Who doesn’t love a word search?

I’m 36 and I can’t walk past one without at least finding a word… now imagine being 6-years-old and having a personalized word search the same size as you.

Like I said: YUP. It was bananas.

RELATED: Curious how I taught my son? Check out Playing Preschool, my activities program.

Giant Word Search FOR THE WIN

My son loves word searches.

He found a word search in a Highlights magazine the other week and taught himself how to do it. He couldn’t read a single word in it, BUT he could see the order of the letters, memorize it, and go off hunting.

He figured out how awesome word searches are all on his own so I thought “If he loves a word search that he can read / barely read…what if I made a personalized one with words he knows?!”

And then that thought evolved into, “What if that personalized word search was THE SAME SIZE AS HIM?!”

Even my mind was blown just thinking about the idea.

RELATED: Looking for more “Learning Activities” like this one? I’ve got a whole page of them!

It was actually really easy to make!

Here’s the process for making this relatively straight

Start with the top row. Write out your top row of words / letters to set up how wide the word search will be.

Then, make a column down the left side of the paper. This will set the length.

Because you have made the top row (think X axis) and the first column (think Y axis), you have set the parameters of the word search.

Keep all your letters / words lined up (relatively) well within these guides and you’ll come out with an “even enough” word search.

What kind of words should you pick?

I chose a random assortment of words for my six-year-old. I made sure to choose them with varying lengths.

Here are some ideas for your child:

• Family member names
• Sight words
• Simple, sound-out-able words
• Spelling words

The sky’s the limit with this activity – tailor it to fit whatever your child is learning or working on.

There’s so much whole-body learning here!

This activity – I like to joke – is an Occupational Therapist’s dream. You’re taking what is normally a sit and do activity and putting it up on a wall (huge for arm strength) and adding in so much body movement.

The core strength needed to complete a giant word search is so impressive.

What looks like a simple learning activity is actually a powerful motor skills building activity.

Making this Giant Word Search was gold.

My son worked for 20 minutes on this – and I know I can go bigger and bolder next time.

Now that I know how easy these are to create… we have so many word searches in our future.

Will you make a Giant Word Search?