Grade 5 Solar System word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

Grade 5 Solar System word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

I made this solar system puzzle set for my 5th graders during our space unit. The kids could name most planets but kept forgetting the order and which ones were gas giants versus rocky planets. They also had no idea what words like orbit, asteroid belt, or gravity meant when we started learning about the structure of the solar system. So I put together a word search, a word scramble, and a crossword using words like Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, orbit, asteroid belt, dwarf planet, gas giant, terrestrial, sun, and gravity . I also made sure to include a few like "solar system" and "astronomy" because they came up in every lesson . Nothing fancy — just puzzles to help the vocabulary finally stick.

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 "Mercury" or whether Pluto should still be a planet (it's a dwarf planet—they always have opinions about it) . The crossword I use for partners or as a review, and I usually have a solar system diagram nearby for the kids who need the visual support to see the order and relative sizes of the planets . I added a couple simple planet circle and sun drawings but nothing too busy.

Works for 5th through 6th grade. Print and go. Sometimes I have early finishers list the planets in order from the sun on the back. The kids actually ask for these now.