Gems and Crystals word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

Gems and Crystals word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

I made this gems and crystals puzzle set for my 3rd and 4th graders during our Earth science unit. The kids were fascinated by shiny stones and kept asking questions like "What's the hardest gem?" and "Where do crystals come from?," but they had no idea about the difference between a mineral and a gem, what "luster" meant, or that emeralds, rubies, and sapphires are all in the "precious" category. So I put together a word search, a word scramble, and a crossword using words like diamond, ruby, emerald, sapphire, amethyst, quartz, topaz, garnet, pearl, opal, mineral, crystal, luster, hardness, carat, and geode. I also threw in a few like "facet" and "brilliance" because they came up when we looked at images of cut stones .

The PDF is four pages. Three puzzles plus one answer key page. The word search works well for quiet time after recess, and the scramble gets them talking because they argue about the spelling of "amethyst" or whether a pearl is really a gemstone (it's organic, not a mineral—they always have opinions about it) . The crossword I use for partners or as a review after we've looked at samples and talked about the physical properties of gemstones .

Works for 3rd through 5th grade. Print and go. Sometimes I have early finishers pick one gemstone from the puzzles and write one fact about it on the back—like its color, hardness, or where it's mined. The kids actually ask for these now.