Grade 6 World Geography word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

Grade 6 World Geography word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

I made this world geography puzzle set for my 6th graders during our social studies unit. The kids could find a few countries on a map but had no idea what words like continent, latitude, or longitude meant when we started learning about the world's physical and human geography. They also kept mixing up the hemispheres and couldn't identify all seven continents. So I put together a word search, a word scramble, and a crossword using words like continent, ocean, latitude, longitude, equator, Prime Meridian, hemisphere, climate, population, capital, and geography . I also included a few like "map" and "globe" because they kept coming up in our class discussions . 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 or independent practice. The scramble gets them talking because they argue about the spelling of "hemisphere" (it's a tricky one) or whether the Prime Meridian and the equator are the same thing (they're not—they always have opinions about it) . The crossword I use for partners or as a review, and I usually have a world map nearby for the kids who need the visual support to see the continents, oceans, and lines of latitude and longitude . I added a couple simple continent outline and compass drawings but nothing too busy.

Works for 6th through 7th grade. Print and go. Sometimes I have early finishers name one continent and one ocean it touches on the back. The kids actually ask for these now.