Natural Wonders of the World word search, scramble and crossword puzzl

Natural Wonders of the World word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

I made this natural wonders of the world puzzle set for my 3rd and 4th graders during our geography unit. The kids were fascinated when I showed them pictures of the Grand Canyon and the Northern Lights, but they had no idea what words like "canyon," "reef," or "aurora" meant when we talked about how these incredible places were formed. So I put together a word search, a word scramble, and a crossword using some of the most amazing natural wonders on Earth: Grand Canyon, Great Barrier Reef, Northern Lights, Mount Everest, Victoria Falls, Paricutin, Harbor of Rio de Janeiro, Amazon Rainforest, Halong Bay, and Uluru . I also threw in a few key geography terms like "canyon," "reef," "volcano," and "monolith" because they came up in every discussion about how these places were formed.

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 "Paricutin" or whether Uluru is in Australia or New Zealand. The crossword I use for partners or as a review after we've watched a few short video clips of these wonders. I added a couple simple canyon, reef, and volcano drawings but nothing too busy.

Works for 3rd through 5th grade. Print and go. Sometimes I have early finishers pick one wonder from the puzzles and write one fact about it on the back. The kids actually ask for these now.