If you are looking for a great way to keep the kids entertained while exercising their minds, then printable word jumbles are perfect. Word jumbles allow kids and adults alike to think outside the box and to expand their vocabulary. They have been shown to improve cognition, quick thinking skills and spelling. Teachers use them as an educational tool, and they are also great for entertainment and as a boredom killer.
What Is a Word Jumble
A word jumble is in essence a word puzzle. Players are given a set of letters which need to be arranged in the correct way in order to un-jumble the word. In other words, the solution to the jumble is called an anagram. For instance if the given letters were “ywretsrabr” the anagram would be “strawberry.”
Jumbles were created in around the year 1954 and are today found in thousands of newspapers around the world. They most often consist of a four-letter based jumble. Once this has been solved, the players take the circled letters of each jumble to create a new set of letters which need to be unscrambled to find the anagram.
The more you solve word jumbles the better you get at word retrieval. Word jumbles require a little knowledge of the rules pertaining to them, plus a good command of language and spelling. Websites offering printable word jumbles are a great way to keep entertained while improving language skills. Just print them out and learn while you are entertained. They are great to keep kids busy on long road trips or for handing out in the classroom.
Links to Printable Word Jumbles
- Print Activities offers a host of word jumbles that, once printed, are cut into four separate jumble sheets. Each jumble can be used alone but when put together they make up a four phase word jumble where the letters contained in the circle form another word jumble. They are a great way to stretch and grow the mind. All jumbles published on this site are free of charge and teachers are encouraged to make use of them for classroom distribution. However they cannot be sold or reproduced in any form or used for promotional purposes. They may also not be published anywhere else on the Internet.
- Jumble.com features many word jumbles, including some particularly challenging puzzles. Many of the jumbles contain at the least around 20 to 40 words. All jumbles can be printed, simply select the jumble; open it in a new browser and print. They fit onto a single sheet of paper perfectly. There is also a jumble forum and a jumble blog, so you can get your fill of jumbles and jumble related subjects.
- Word Jumble has another great list of printbale jumbles, organized by themes and subjects. There are all different puzzles, from actors and actresses to miscellaneous puzzles. These are intended to be done online, but can be copied and pasted into a document to print, or printed from your web browser by adjusting your print settings.
- Family Travel Made Easy offers jumbles aimed at different levels of capability. They are a great way to keep the kids quiet on a long trip, but can also be used in any other setting. These jumbles are theme based, which can spark the imagination of and appeal to the younger mind. These themes range from Fairy tales, Sports, Easter or the Seasons. They also offer mixed word jumble sets such as Money, Vegetables, Countries and Scooby-Doo for instance.
- Best Free Word Search Puzzles offers many categories of work jumbles. However in order to print you would need to open the jumble, copy it and paste it into a word document, since the jumbles are not automatically printable.
- Apples for Teacher offers word jumbles based on summer fun such as the beach or baseball for instance. They also offer printable answer sheets for each of their word jumbles. These are geared towards a school aged audience and the themes make them fun for younger elementary and middle school children to enjoy.