How it works
Pick a level
Easy for early readers. Hard hides words in all eight directions, including backwards.
Download or print
One clean US Letter page, with the answer key on page two. Nothing to sign up for.
Grab a pencil
Or solve on screen: tap the first and last letter of each word you find.
About this puzzle
Big, bold letters and fewer, longer words: an easier-on-the-eyes solar system word search. Eight planets in order from the Sun, Mercury to Neptune, plus dwarf planet Pluto, our Moon and two famous moons of Jupiter and Saturn, Europa and Titan. Words like orbit, axis, rotation and crater help with the vocabulary of a solar system unit. For a puzzle about rockets, astronauts and galaxies, try the Outer Space word search.
The large print edition uses an 11×11 grid that fills a letter-size page, and words only run across, down or diagonally down.
All 20 words in this theme: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Sun, Moon, Pluto, Planet, Orbit, Rings, Dwarf, Titan, Europa, Crater, Axis, Rotation.
Talk about it
Questions to share while solving, for activity groups, memory care or a visit with family:
- Where were you when people first walked on the Moon in 1969?
- Have you ever seen a comet, a shooting star or an eclipse?
- Which planet would you visit if you could, and why?
- Did you learn a rhyme to remember the planets in order?
- Do you remember when Pluto was still called the ninth planet?
Activity tip: Read the planets aloud in order from the Sun and let the group help. Many people learned a memory rhyme as children and enjoy remembering it.
Questions
How big are the letters?
The grid fills most of a letter-size page, with letters about one and a half times the size of a regular (Medium) word search, and the word list is printed in large type too.
Are these suitable for memory care or activity groups?
Yes. Words only run left to right, top to bottom or diagonally down, so the puzzles are relaxing rather than tricky. Print as many copies as your group needs.
Is there a harder version?
Every theme also has a regular print edition with Easy, Medium and Hard levels.