Free Printable Free Printable Back to School Word Search (+ Answer Key!)

Whether you're looking for a back to school word search for your classroom or for your children at home, I hope you enjoy this free printable!

Working on puzzles, including word searches, has a variety of benefits for both children and adults. They can help improve spelling, letter and word recognition, and problem solving skills (just to name a few).

These back to school word search free printables are a low-prep way to keep your kids busy without resorting to screen time and they come with an answer key to save you time.

two free printable back to school wood searches on a wood background. There are also two pencils and an eraser on the table.

This post may include affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.

This back to school word search features 20 education themed words to seek and find, including:

Alphabet
Apple
Backpack
Binder
Books
Bus
Classroom
Desk
Learn
Locker
Lunchbox
Notebook
Paper
Pencil
Recess
Ruler
Scissors
Student
Teacher
Whiteboard

Tips for using printables

Using printables is pretty straightforward, but these tips will help you make the most of these word searches and any other free printables you find!

It's easy to make this printable reusable if you use a laminator or dry erase pocket.

A dry erase pocket is basically a super strength page protector that's designed for use with dry (or wet) erase markers. It's a good alternative if you don't have a laminator.

Dry Erase Pockets, 10 Pack Oversized 10x14 Sleeves for 8.5x11 Worksheets,...

Dry erase markers included: Each sleeve has a color-matched low-odor black marker with eraser tip for quick wipe-clean practice on worksheets, charts,...
Oversized sheet protectors fit standard pages: 10x14 sleeves fit 8.5x11 paper with room to spare—great for printable tracing sheets, sentence...
Classroom-ready durability: Heavy duty PVC construction with double-stitch edges, metal grommet, and elastic loop. Reusable pouches wipe clean without...

If you find yourself using a lot of free printables, consider purchasing an at home laminating machine. They're very affordable and pay for themselves in about 10-20 uses when compared to the price of laminating at a copy shop.

Scotch Thermal Laminator, 2 Roller System for a Professional Finish, Use...

LAMINATING MACHINE: One Scotch TL901X Thermal Laminator to help you protect frequently used school documents, assignments and instruction sheets up to...
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FAST LAMINATING: Laminates one letter-size page per minute and has a release lever for quick pouch release, giving you more time to focus on homework...

If you chose to protect your pages for reuse, you may want to go ahead and print them on presentation paper so they look their best. Presentation paper is heavier than printer paper and has a special coating for crisp, vibrant images.

The difference is more noticeable in real life, but the mermaid bingo card on the left was printed on presentation paper while the one on the right was printed on cardstock.

difference between print on presentation paper and cardstock

For one-time use, just plain printer paper is fine.

Free printable back to school word searches

As always here on The Artisan Life, these printables are available free for personal use.

You can print and use them with your own kids, in your homeschool co-op, Sunday school class, or personal classroom, but please do not redistribute the digital files. Instead, just refer your friends and colleagues to this post so they can download the puzzles for themselves. 🙂

This is a more challenging word search for a child - younger kids may need some assistance. The words can be hidden forwards, backwards, and diagonally. The backwards words are (I think) trickiest to find!

To help you, I am also including an answer key.

These previews are just low resolution images. Please use the download links (highlighted with grey boxes) below each preview image to get the high resolution PDF. Downloads should start automatically, but you may need to authorize downloads from Dropbox if asked for permission.

First there's the puzzle with a paperclip background for a fun, school vibe. The paperclips are easy on your colored ink and would also look fine printed in black and white.

preview-of-back-to-school-word-search-with-paperclip-background

Download your paperclip background back to school word search here

Then there's the same puzzle with a stack of books and an apple in the background. This one uses a little more ink and wouldn't translate as well into black and white.

preview-of-back-to-school-word-search-with-apple-and-books-in-background

Apple and books back to school word search

Finally, there's a plain, only black and white version of the word search without any extra adornments. This is obviously the most ink-friendly version!