Trees of North America word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

Trees of North America word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

I made this trees of North America puzzle set for my 3rd and 4th graders during our science unit on plants and ecosystems. The kids could name a few common trees like oak and pine, but they had no idea about the amazing variety of native trees or what words like conifer, deciduous, or canopy meant when we talked about forests . So I put together a word search, a word scramble, and a crossword using words like oak, maple, pine, cedar, spruce, birch, elm, hickory, walnut, hemlock, aspen, sycamore, and beech . 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 "sycamore" or whether a maple and a sycamore are the same thing (they're not, but the kids always have opinions about it). The crossword I use for partners or as a review after we've looked at pictures and leaf shapes . I added a couple simple leaf, pinecone, and acorn drawings but nothing too busy.

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