Weather Word Search (Free Printable with Answer Key)

The word list

The 20 words above are already loaded. Remove the severe weather words if your group is very young or has been through a storm recently.

How to use this word search in a weather unit

Weather words show up in daily conversation and on the news, so students often already know many of them. The puzzle turns that background knowledge into spelling practice and gives the class a shared vocabulary for a weather unit.

1. Ask students to look out the window and name today's weather before starting.
2. Solve the puzzle and highlight the word that describes today's sky.
3. Sort the words into calm weather and severe weather on the board.
4. Close with a prediction: what do you think tomorrow will be like, and what clues did you use?

The National Weather Service has safety information that pairs well with the severe weather words.

Three weather variations

• Weather station. Keep a daily chart for a week, using words from the puzzle for each day.
• Forecaster. Students present a one minute forecast for their classmates, using at least five words from the list.
• Cloud journal. Draw the sky each afternoon and label it with a word from the puzzle.

Tips for teachers and parents

Be sensitive to students who have lived through severe storms. Words like tornado and hurricane can bring up strong feelings, so keep the tone calm and factual.

Spelling thermometer is hard for most children. Write it on the board before solving so they can use it as a model.

Printing tips for weather lessons

Plain white paper works best, and ink saver mode keeps a class set affordable. Laminated puzzles can live in a weather center all season, and children can wipe them clean after each use with a dry-erase marker.

A 14 by 14 grid fits the longest words, thermometer and temperature, with room to spare.