Word puzzles come in many varieties and are fun to do. A good word puzzle makes you think, and solving it gives a sense of satisfaction. Bible word puzzles make great follow-up activities for Sunday school lessons or they can be used as stand-alone activities. We keep several on hand for children to work on during midweek Bible class.
Creating your own word puzzles can be time consuming, and buying puzzle books can get pricy. Today there are all kinds of free puzzles on the internet, ready to print or do online. Finding the right one has never been easier. This article suggests a few sites to try if you are looking for ready-to-use Bible word puzzles. It goes without saying that anything you find on the internet should be carefully examined before being used.
And there is something else to think about before giving your kids a Bible word puzzle. The level of difficulty needs to be considered. This can vary widely from puzzle to puzzle. Puzzles that are too difficult are no fun at all. I have seen word puzzles given to children that are well beyond their ability to understand and solve. When this happens, the puzzle is discouraging to them. At the same time, puzzles that are too easy are not good either. A one-size-fits-all approach does not work with word puzzles.
Bible puzzles – http://biblepuzzles.com/
The Bible Puzzles site offers several kinds of Bible word puzzles and games: crosswords, word searches, Code words, anagrams, Hangman, and Kriss Kross puzzles among others. Most are printable. Many can be done online. In fact, it is probably easier to do Bible Puzzles’ Hangman on a cell phone than any other way. The site is easy to navigate.
Code words combine features of crossword puzzles and cryptograms. They’re good for anyone who likes a challenge.
Kriss Kross puzzles are also a variation on the crossword puzzle theme. Instead of having clues to work with, the answers are listed. It becomes a case of fitting the words into the correct places in the puzzle. The Codewords and Kriss Kross puzzles are thematic and a number of them relate to well-known Bible stories. Both kinds of puzzles are printable.
It is worth exploring all the puzzle and game pages on the Bible Puzzles site. There are a lot to choose from. The site also offers some craft ideas, Bible coloring pages, and a few downloadable activity booklets. The materials are free. Donations are not solicited. Bible Puzzles appears to generate its income from ads and the sale of other products.
Christian Bible Reference Site – http://www.twopaths.com/index.htm
Among a wide range of offerings, the Christian Bible Reference Site has menus of Bible quizzes, crossword puzzles, and word searches. They are easy to access from the home page.
Most of the Bible Quizzes consist of ten multiple choice questions. They are labeled as easy, medium, and difficult, and are designed to be done online. There is no direct way to print the quizzes, but it is possible to copy and paste them into your word processor for printing purposes. The site offers a fairly wide range of Bible quizzes to choose from, and a new one is added every week. Quizzes are clearly titled and the menu is easy to use.
The menu of Crossword Puzzles offers large and small puzzles that can be printed or done online. The large crosswords are newspaper-style puzzles. They have no titles and touch only occasionally on Bible subjects. The small crossword puzzles have titles and include several with specific Bible themes. The Word Search menu offers by far the largest number of Bible puzzles to choose from. They are clearly titled so it is easy to see what’s available. Word searches come in large (more than 50 words) and small (more than 15 words) varieties. The word searches can also be printed or done online.
Puzzles on the Christian Bible Reference Site are free, but there is a unique way to make a contribution. You can submit your own word search if you like. Under the Word Search tab, just click on “Contribute a puzzle to this page – it’s easy!” and follow the directions.
Living Water Bible Games –
http://www.livingwaterbiblegames.com/biblegames.html
The Living Water Bible Games site is easy to navigate. You can access puzzles by typing in a keyword (e.g., judges) or, even easier, you can scroll down and choose a puzzle from the alphabetized menu on the right side of the screen. Most of the puzzles are printable; several can be done online, and some let you to do both. If you want your kids to do one of the puzzles online, try it out first. Strategies vary and some puzzles are harder to do online than others. The majority of Living Water puzzles are word searches related to popular Old and New Testament stories. The site offers a few crossword puzzles as well.
In addition to word puzzles, Living Water offers several printable Bible Bingo games and a variety of other games that you might find interesting to use or adapt. Everything is free, but donations are invited.
Other sites
Here are three other sites you might like to explore for Bible word puzzles: A Kid’s Heart – http://www.akidsheart.com/bible/biblepzlprnt.htm.
Christian Family Word – biblewordgames.com. The purpose of this site is to promote and sell puzzle books, but it has a lot of free samples to offer. In some cases you need to install an app in order to open the puzzle; others print directly. The sample puzzles have no titles, so it is impossible to know what they are about without opening them. In spite of these drawbacks, the site is worth exploring.
Kid Sunday school Place–http://www.kidssundayschool.com/13/ gradeschool/puzzles.php.
Suggesting websites like these as sources of ready-to-use Bible word puzzles is not an endorsement of the sites themselves. It bears repeating that any material found on the internet needs to be carefully examined for suitability before being used.
Footnote. I have a lot of homemade Bible word puzzles in PDF form: acrostics, anagrams, crossword puzzles, cryptograms, jigsaw quotes, word mazes, word searches, and more. The collection is fully indexed by Bible subject, age level, and puzzle type. Puzzles are easy to access from the index. Just print and use. Drop me an email and I will be glad to send the entire collection to you.
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