Name: Character Traits word search, scramble and crossword puzzle
SKU: 6a2311e1a7dbec0019441d87
Price: 39.99 USD
Availability: InStock

About this resource

What's inside this resource

Character Traits word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

I made this character traits puzzle set for my 3rd and 4th graders during our reading unit. The kids could describe a character as "nice" or "mean" but had no idea about deeper words like compassionate, courageous, or mischievous. So I put together a word search, a word scramble, and a crossword using words like kind, brave, honest, loyal, greedy, selfish, generous, humble, proud, curious, stubborn, responsible, reliable, trustworthy, compassionate, courageous, mischievous, and determined. Nothing fancy — just puzzles to help the vocabulary of character description finally grow.

The PDF is four pages. Three puzzles plus one answer key page. The word search works well for quiet time after recess. The scramble gets them talking because they argue about whether "greedy" is always bad. The crossword I use for partners. I added a couple simple happy and sad face drawings but nothing too busy.

Works for 3rd through 5th grade. Print and go. Sometimes I have early finishers describe a book character using two traits on the back. The kids actually ask for these now.

What's included

A crossword file with a numbered grid running 1 to 14 for the fifteen answers, five ACROSS clues and ten DOWN clues, followed by the completed grid
A word scramble file: fifteen jumbled strings (RVAEB, NKID, STNOHE, OGRUOUSAEC, RNTRGOAA, ALESUJO) each with its clue and a blank line, followed by a page with all fifteen solved
A word search file: a twenty-by-twenty letter grid with the fifteen words listed beneath it, and a second page repeating that grid and list
One shared clue set used by all three puzzles: fearless, nice, truthful, faithful, wants too much, only cares self, brave, too proud, not proud, envious, waits calmly, not polite, respectful, wants to learn, doesn't want to work

Resource types: Word Searches, Worksheets, Worksheets & Printables, Crosswords Puzzles

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Name fifteen adjectives that describe a person's character, from brave and honest through arrogant and lazy
Match a short paraphrase clue to the trait it names — "waits calmly" to patient, "only cares self" to selfish, "envious" to jealous
Spell each trait correctly when rebuilding it from scrambled letters such as OGRUOUSAEC and RNTRGOAA
Pick the fifteen traits out by sight inside a dense twenty-by-twenty letter grid

Teaching tips

Start with the scramble: it prints the clue directly under every jumbled string and marks the answer length with a blank line, which makes it the most supported of the three.
Save the crossword for pairs — the clues are the same short synonyms but no letters are supplied, so the grid intersections carry all the help students get.
The three puzzles are separate files, so one can go home while another is held back for early finishers without printing the whole set.
Use the printed word list as a ready-made trait bank afterwards: ask students to pick two of the fifteen and justify them against a character in whatever the class is reading.
Nine of the traits are positive and six are unflattering, which sets up a sorting discussion once the puzzles are done.

Skills covered

Character-trait vocabulary — students work through fifteen describing words: brave, kind, honest, loyal, greedy, selfish, courageous, arrogant, humble, jealous, patient, rude, polite, curious and lazy.
Synonym reasoning — every clue is a paraphrase rather than a definition, so "envious" has to be turned into jealous and "not polite" into rude.
Spelling from scrambled letters — students rebuild ten-letter strings such as OGRUOUSAEC and RNTRGOAA into courageous and arrogant.
Visual scanning — the fifteen answers sit inside a twenty-by-twenty grid with the word list printed below rather than alongside.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

The word "brave" turns up as both a clue and an answer — how do students tell the two apart?

Brave is one of the fifteen answers, clued "fearless", and it is also the clue attached to courageous. In the scramble the two sit at items 1 and 7 and the letter counts separate them cleanly: five letters for brave, ten for courageous. In the crossword, 5 ACROSS is clued "brave" and takes courageous while 12 ACROSS is clued "fearless" and takes brave.

How much help does the scramble give a student who is stuck?

Two things sit under every jumbled string: the clue, and a blank line matching the length of the answer. A student who cannot decode IESFSHL still has "only cares self" and a seven-space line to work from.

Does the list include unflattering traits as well as admirable ones?

Both. Nine are positive — brave, kind, honest, loyal, courageous, humble, patient, polite, curious — and six are not: greedy, selfish, arrogant, jealous, rude and lazy. The mix gives a sorting or discussion task a natural contrast once the puzzles are solved.