Sea life word search
Orca in the harbour, a Hector's dolphin riding the bow wave and a stingray gliding over the sand. Twenty creatures from the seas around Aotearoa.
- Albatross
- Anemone
- Blue penguin
- Crayfish
- Fur seal
- Gannet
- Hector's dolphin
- Humpback
- Jellyfish
- Kelp
- Kina
- Octopus
- Orca
- Pāua
- Seahorse
- Shark
- Snapper
- Sperm whale
- Starfish
- Stingray
This is the same puzzle as on the printable sheet. Every word you find turns green and is crossed off the list.
Make your own versionSea life
Name
| K | C | R | A | Y | F | I | S | H | N | B | P | A | S |
| I | C | P | L | E | S | N | O | I | C | L | A | D | A |
| N | D | N | B | G | P | L | A | A | O | U | U | D | P |
| A | J | O | A | E | E | C | A | W | R | E | A | I | A |
| H | E | C | T | O | R | S | D | O | L | P | H | I | N |
| U | L | T | R | O | M | H | F | K | S | E | C | S | E |
| M | L | O | O | G | W | A | A | S | T | N | F | R | M |
| P | Y | P | S | O | H | R | A | T | A | G | U | S | O |
| B | F | U | S | N | A | K | M | I | R | U | R | N | N |
| A | I | S | R | I | L | I | T | N | F | I | S | A | E |
| C | S | C | P | S | E | U | S | G | I | N | E | P | N |
| K | H | L | S | E | A | H | O | R | S | E | A | P | G |
| E | E | K | N | A | A | E | I | A | H | W | L | E | A |
| K | G | A | N | N | E | T | L | Y | N | H | K | R | N |
Find these words
- Albatross
- Anemone
- Blue penguin
- Crayfish
- Fur seal
- Gannet
- Hector's dolphin
- Humpback
- Jellyfish
- Kelp
- Kina
- Octopus
- Orca
- Pāua
- Seahorse
- Shark
- Snapper
- Sperm whale
- Starfish
- Stingray
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Scan for the answer key
Sea life
Give it a try: drag a line across the letters.
All words found!
About this word search
The seas around Aotearoa are full of life. Hector's dolphins live only in New Zealand waters, sperm whales feed off Kaikōura where a deep canyon reaches close to the coast, and orca regularly visit city harbours. At Taiaroa Head on the Otago Peninsula there is a breeding colony of royal albatross on the mainland, and little blue penguins nest along much of the coast.
The grid is fourteen by fourteen and the words run across, down and diagonally, never backwards. Hector's dolphin is the longest at fourteen letters, so it fills a whole row as HECTORSDOLPHIN. Blue penguin has eleven and sperm whale ten. Orca, pāua, kina and kelp are only four letters each, and pāua shows up as PAUA without the macron. The J of jellyfish and the Y of crayfish and stingray stand out.
After the puzzle, children can sort the words into mammals, birds, fish and other sea life. It is a good lead-in to a beach visit, where some of these, like kina, kelp and starfish, can be found in a rock pool.
Ways to use this word search
In the classroom
Print it as a task for early finishers, or to open a lesson on this topic. With the QR code on the sheet, students check their own answers.
At home and on the go
Pack a few printed sheets for the car, the ferry or the bach. A pen is all you need, no screen required.
Play together
Print the sheet twice and race each other. Whoever finds all the words first wins. Or play it online and see who is fastest.
Try it in Spanish too
The same theme also exists in Spanish, French, German and Italian, each with its own word list in that language. Handy if you are learning a language: you already know the topic, now just the words.
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