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.
Provincial curriculum links
- BC KConcepts of print, recognizing some familiar words, and knowing that pictures carry meaning.
- BC Grade 1Identifying familiar and sight words while decoding with phonics.
- ON KThe Ontario Curriculum, Kindergarten, 2026 adds explicit early reading skills within play-based learning.
Puzzles aren’t named in either province’s curriculum, but picture-supported word work fits early reading goals: a child who knows the picture is a fox can focus on the letters f, o and x. Saying each word slowly before finding it links the puzzle to the sound work both provinces teach in Kindergarten.
The seasonal sets follow the Canadian school calendar, with fall and Halloween in the first term and a long winter before spring. Ink saver pages also suit the colouring and fine motor work common in Kindergarten.
Summarized in our own words from BC English Language Arts (K–1) and The Ontario Curriculum, Kindergarten, 2026.
