Rain Forest Plants word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

Rain Forest Plants word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

I made this rainforest plants puzzle set for my 3rd and 4th graders during our ecosystems unit. The kids knew about tall trees and vines, but they had no idea about the specific plant names like bromeliads, orchids, or lianas, or what words like canopy, understory, or emergent meant when we talked about the different layers of the rainforest. They kept asking questions like "Do flowers grow on the forest floor?" and "What's that plant that grows on other plants?" So I put together a word search, a word scramble, and a crossword using words like bromeliads, orchids, lianas, ferns, rubber tree, cacao, banana tree, heliconia, giant water lilies, passion fruit flower, canopy, understory, emergent, and forest floor .

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 "bromeliads" or whether a liana is a vine or a tree. The crossword I use for partners or as a review after we've watched a short video about the rainforest layers or looked at pictures of the different plants. I added a couple simple leaf, orchid, and vine drawings but nothing too busy.

Works for 3rd through 5th grade. Print and go. Sometimes I have early finishers pick one plant from the puzzles and write what layer of the rainforest it grows in on the back. The kids actually ask for these now.