From short-a CVC words to the trickiest homophones adults still slip on — free printable word search puzzles, organised the way spelling is actually learned. One systematic phonics journey, the complete UK National Curriculum statutory spelling list, and the full US Dolch sight words. Built for teachers, designed with home educators in mind.
Most word search collections are random. This one isn’t. Every puzzle sits at a deliberate point in a child’s reading journey, with teaching notes that explain the pattern, five specific words worth pausing on, and three named activities — one for whole-class use, one for pairs, and one explicitly for one-to-one use at home. The whole library is free to download as PDFs with answer keys, printable, and built to be used in classrooms, kitchens and home-school settings without preparation.
Three series, three journeys
The collection is organised into three connected strands. Most children benefit from working through more than one — the series are designed to support each other, with patterns from Core Phonics explaining why words in the UK and US lists are spelled the way they are.
Series A: Core Phonics & Spelling
The systematic phonics journey from short-a CVC words to the trickiest homophones in English. Covers Letters and Sounds Phases 2-6, the magic E pattern, blends and digraphs, suffixes and prefixes, Greek and Latin roots, and the most commonly confused spelling pairs. Built around the UK phonics framework and the US science-of-reading approach. Suitable for Reception/Kindergarten through Year 6/Fifth Grade.
Series B: UK Word Lists
The complete National Curriculum statutory spelling list. Every common exception word and statutory spelling from Year 1 through Year 6 — THE and SAID in Reception, BECAUSE and BEAUTIFUL in Year 3, ACCOMMODATE and CONSCIENCE in Year 6. Organised by year group, taught in family clusters where the spelling patterns allow, learned word by word where they don’t. Aligned to the DfE statutory requirements.
Series C: US Dolch Sight Words
The complete Dolch sight word list across all five levels. The most frequent words in early children’s books — the structural skeleton of fluent reading. From Pre-Primer (A, AND, BIG) through Primer, Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3 (TOGETHER, EIGHT, ALWAYS). Identified by Edward Dolch in the 1930s and still central to early reading instruction today.
Where to start
Three quick paths through the collection, depending on who is using it:
- UK schools and UK parents: Begin with Year 1 Common Exception Words for the National Curriculum essentials. Add Core Phonics for the patterns underneath — starting at the beginning if your child is in Reception, or jumping in around the suffix puzzles for older children.
- US schools and US parents: Begin with Dolch Pre-Primer for sight word recognition, alongside Core Phonics for the systematic phonics journey through CVC words, magic E, blends and beyond.
- Home educators with younger children: Short-a CVC is the universal starting point — decodable from day one, friendly for any beginner reader aged five and up. The one-to-one home activity in every post means no specialist phonics training is required to teach effectively.
What makes these puzzles different
Every puzzle in the collection comes with substantial teaching context — not a brief blurb, but a real lesson plan. Each post explains the spelling pattern, flags specific words worth pausing on with concrete actions to take, and offers three named activities: one for whole-class use, one for pairs or small groups, and one explicitly for one-to-one use at home. The home variant is deliberate — home educators are an audience, not an afterthought.
The puzzles themselves are graded by difficulty. Novice puzzles use a 13×13 grid with words running left-to-right and top-to-bottom only — ideal for early readers building scanning skills. Intermediate puzzles step up to 16×16 with diagonals introduced. Expert puzzles use a 20×20 grid with words placed in all eight directions. Every puzzle is free to download as a PDF, with a clean answer key on the second page for self-checking. Every puzzle is also free to print, photocopy and share within a classroom or family.
Using the collection in school
For teachers, the puzzles work as lesson starters, rotation tasks during guided reading, independent practice, or homework. The three-named-activities pattern in every post means there’s always a class-friendly option and a paired-talk option available, alongside the one-to-one variant for differentiation or for the child who finishes early. Several teachers use the puzzles as a five-minute warm-up tied to the day’s phonics or spelling lesson — the puzzle reinforces the pattern just taught while the rest of the room settles in.
For Year 1 phonics screening check preparation, the early Core Phonics puzzles cover the short vowels, digraphs and long vowel teams the check targets. For SATs preparation in Year 6, the advanced spelling puzzles cover the suffixes, prefixes and statutory words children need to spell confidently under exam conditions.
Using the collection at home
For parents and home educators, every post contains a “One-to-one at home” activity designed for one adult and one child. These are different from the classroom activities — they assume no specialist phonics training, no other children to pair with, and they use everyday household items (the kettle, the fridge, the bedtime book, the car journey) as teaching tools. Parents who have never taught reading before can pick up any puzzle in the collection and run a productive twenty-minute session. Homeschooling families using formal curriculum can use the puzzles as supplementary practice; families taking a less formal approach can use the puzzles as the spine of their literacy work.
All puzzles are free to use in classrooms, homes and home-school settings. PDFs include a clean answer key for self-checking. If you find this collection useful, linking back rather than reuploading the PDFs helps keep the site free for everyone.