home / Blog / Activities / holidays / Halloween Word Search

Halloween Word Search

by Teach Mama

The candy has been bought, costumes are ready and the weather is cool. It’s the perfect time for your kids to do a fun Halloween Word Search while waiting for the witching hour and all that candy!

Growing up, Halloween was one of my favorite holidays. Deciding what I was going to be, buying or (some years) making my costume was so much fun! And then everyone getting to wear their costumes all day at school the day of the halloween party was amazing! (I can’t imagine that any actual school work got done that day!)

But as exciting as the build-up to Halloween is, there has to be some time to be calm. A spooky little word search can certainly help with that.

Word search word list with words marked out

Spooky Word Search Strategies

At first word searches just look like a jumble of letters. Sometimes a word or two might sort of jump out at you, but a few simple strategies will help your kids find the words like magic! So let’s talk a little bit about strategies for hunting for each word.

Halloween word search printable

Line by line and searching

The child looks for the first letter of the word and then looking for the second letter next to the first letter and so on until they find the word.

Piece of paper to help guide

Using a piece of paper and moving it from line to line helps the child focus on only the letters in one line at a time.

Saying the first letter over and over

Helps early readers or kids just getting acquainted with letters to remember which letter they are looking for.

Looking for double letters

If the target word has a double letter those tend to stand out more as the child scans the word search.

To make it little more “tricky” you could try this.

  • Use a highlighter to highlight the word;
  • Use a different color to highlight each word;
  • Use water colors to paint each word;
  • Circle each letter of the word;
  • Circle the whole word;
  • Draw a picture of the word you’re looking for beside it in the list

And that’s it–just a little bit of literacy-focused Halloween Word Search fun during homework time or quiet time. Happy Searching!

If you want to grab your own Halloween Word Search Printable just throw your email in the box:

Want a few more fun halloween ideas?

PIN THIS FOR LATER

You may also like

16 comments

Brandy October 27, 2011 - 10:19 pm

Love that Cora is so girly! Thanks for the word search!

Reply
amy October 28, 2011 - 7:24 am

you are so welcome, my friend! happy halloween!!

Reply
halloween learning ideas October 13, 2012 - 4:08 pm

[…] Halloween Word Search: Perfect for emerging readers, word searches provide a super platform for really looking for letters. Add some Halloween words, and kids love playing detective! […]

Reply
how to BOO! your friends October 24, 2012 - 10:10 am

[…] Halloween coloring pages from last year’s Halloween class parties and a few copies of our Hallween Word Search.  Why not, […]

Reply
halloween class party ideas: help for classroom parents October 21, 2014 - 6:49 am

[…] halloween word search […]

Reply
halloween bingo game October 21, 2014 - 6:51 am

[…] halloween word search […]

Reply
Melissa Matters October 19, 2015 - 9:05 pm

THANKS FOR THE WORD SEARCH AND STRATEGIES TOO! #FABULOUSPARTY

Reply
Teach Mama October 20, 2015 - 11:01 pm

YOU are SO SO SO welcome, my friend!! #whyreinventthewheel #roomparentsUNITE

Reply
cool halloween costumes for tweens (costumes inspired by great books!) - teach mama October 1, 2016 - 8:31 am

[…] halloween word search […]

Reply
halloween printable board games for kids - teach mama October 1, 2016 - 5:04 pm

[…] halloween word search […]

Reply
quick and easy halloween ghost cookies - teach mama October 13, 2016 - 2:24 pm

[…] Halloween word search […]

Reply
new ideas for halloween treats: alternatives to candy - teach mama October 19, 2016 - 5:23 pm

[…] halloween word search […]

Reply
dinner in a pumpkin - teach mama October 20, 2016 - 9:59 am

[…] halloween word search […]

Reply
halloween mad lib: spooky fill-in story for halloween fun - teach mama November 14, 2017 - 7:50 am

[…] time they were teeny, we played Hats, Cats, and Pumpkin Grid Games, ABC Leaf Hunt, GHOST Bingo!, or Halloween Word Search. Anything to ring in this spooky holiday with a bit o’ sneaky […]

Reply
halloween class party: 10 quickie activities for that extra 10 minutes - teach mama November 14, 2017 - 7:51 am

[…] halloween word search […]

Reply
We've Got You, Boo: the Very Best Halloween Content on the Internet - Mom 2.0 | Moms + Marketers + Media October 24, 2018 - 4:45 pm

[…] that you can use for home and school celebrations. Check out alternatives to Halloween candy, Halloween word search, and ghost bingo, which looks really fun and […]

Reply

Leave a Comment