Day and Night word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

Day and Night word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

I made this day and night puzzle set for my 2nd and 3rd graders during our space unit. The kids knew the sun came up in the morning and went down at night but couldn't explain why. So I put together a word search, a word scramble, and a crossword using words like rotation, axis, day, night, sun, Earth, light, shadow, east, west, sunrise, sunset, spin, and 24 hours. Nothing fancy — just puzzles to help the concept finally click.

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 the sun moves or the Earth moves. The crossword I use for partners. I added a couple simple sun and Earth drawings with arrows showing spin but nothing too busy.

Works for 1st through 3rd grade. Print and go. Sometimes I have early finishers draw the sun on one side of Earth and a shadow on the other side on the back. The kids actually ask for these now.