Fossils and Paleontology Word search, scramble and crossword

Match fossil vocabulary to short definitions, such as identifying a cast as a filled imprint and a mold as an empty one

Spell fifteen paleontology terms correctly, including long ones like permineralisation and carbonisation

Distinguish the fossilisation processes named in the list - carbonisation, permineralisation, amber preservation, mold and cast

Recognise the specialist words for extinct organisms and for the scientist who studies them

All three puzzles use the same fifteen words, so run the crossword first and the word search last - by the third pass students are checking spelling rather than recalling meaning

The clues are definitions rather than descriptions, so the crossword doubles as a vocabulary check and can be marked as one

The scramble prints a blank of the correct length under each item, which quietly gives away word length - useful as scaffolding, worth covering if the sheet is being used to assess

Mold and cast are clued only as "Empty imprint" and "Filled imprint"; that distinction is the one worth teaching before the puzzles rather than during them

The three puzzles are separate files, so one can be set as homework while another runs in class

Fossil vocabulary - fifteen terms including mold, cast, trace fossil, carbonisation, permineralisation and index fossils are matched to one-line definitions in the crossword.

Spelling long technical words - the scramble asks students to unjumble ENIREAZTNIMLOIARP into permineralisation and OAANBTCOIIRZN into carbonisation, letter by letter.

Definition matching - every scramble item carries its definition above the jumbled letters, so the clue is meaning rather than a word bank.

Visual word recognition - the word search sets the same terms in a letter grid, which asks students to recognise each word by shape after they have met it by definition.