Exoplanets Vocabulary word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

Exoplanets Vocabulary word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

I made this exoplanets vocabulary puzzle set for my 4th graders during our space unit. The kids were obsessed with the idea of planets orbiting other stars, but they kept mixing up terms like "exoplanet," "transit," and "habitable zone," and they always asked whether we could actually see these planets or not. So I put together a word search, a word scramble, and a crossword using vocabulary from the exoplanet unit: exoplanet, extrasolar, transit, orbit, habitable, goldilocks zone, telescope, radial velocity, light-year, star, galaxy, and Milky Way. I also included a few like "Doppler" and "Kepler" because they kept coming up in our class discussions about how we find these planets.

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 the spelling of "exoplanet" or whether a "habitable" planet really means there's life on it (it doesn't—it just means liquid water could exist, and the kids always have opinions about it). The crossword I use for partners, and I usually have a diagram of the transit method and a picture of the Goldilocks zone nearby for the kids who need the visual support to connect the words to the concepts.

Works for 4th through 6th grade. Print and go. Sometimes I have early finishers draw the transit method on the back and label it with a word from the puzzle. The kids actually ask for these now.