Thanksgiving word search

Start from one of the word lists: three for different ages, one for the 1621 harvest feast at Plymouth and one for fall. Every word in the box can be changed, so put in the names of everyone at the table, or a class's spelling words. Then choose the grid size and which ways the words run, and press Print. A second page carries the answer key.

Sheet number is the seed. With the same words and settings, a sheet number always gives the same grid, so a whole class can share one key, and next November you can print the same puzzle again. Press New grid for a fresh arrangement of the same words.

For ages 5 to 7, keep to a 10 × 10 grid with words that only run across and down, and a dozen short words. From about 8, add the diagonals and a bigger grid. Backwards words, running up as well as down, make the hardest puzzles: good for teenagers, or for the grown-ups while the turkey rests.

Long words turn out to be easier to spot than short ones, because they cross more of the grid. If a list is too easy, add a few short words; if it's too hard, use a smaller grid with fewer words. Any word too long for the grid is left out, and the page says which.

The history list is built from the accounts of the harvest celebration at Plymouth Colony in the autumn of 1621. The colonists had crossed on the Mayflower the year before. Massasoit came with some ninety Wampanoag men, who hunted five deer for the feast; the colonists' accounts also mention fowl and wild turkeys, with fish, eels and shellfish part of their diet. It makes a good sheet for a lesson on where the holiday's story comes from.