State Capitals West word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

State Capitals West word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

I made this Western states and capitals puzzle set for my 3rd and 4th graders during our geography unit. The kids could name a few states like California and Colorado, but they had no idea what cities like Sacramento, Denver, or Olympia were, or that the West is the largest region with 11 states including Alaska and Hawaii, which are not connected to the rest of the country . They kept getting confused about which capital belonged to which state, especially the ones that sound like they could be cities in the Midwest, like Salem and Olympia.

So I put together a word search, a word scramble, and a crossword using the 11 capitals of the West region: Juneau (Alaska), Honolulu (Hawaii), Sacramento (California), Salem (Oregon), Olympia (Washington), Boise (Idaho), Helena (Montana), Cheyenne (Wyoming), Carson City (Nevada), Salt Lake City (Utah), and Denver (Colorado) .

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 "Sacramento" (that tricky second 'a') or whether "Juneau" is pronounced like the month or like "Juno" (it's the second one, and they always debate it). The crossword I use for partners or as a review after we've looked at a West region map. I added a couple simple state outline and mountain drawings but nothing too busy.

Works for 3rd through 5th grade. Print and go. Sometimes I have early finishers pick one capital from the puzzles and write its state on the back, or try to find all 11 capitals on a classroom map. The kids actually ask for these now.