Kids Crossword Rules: How to Play (With a Printable Example)

Kids crossword rules are short, but every one of them matters when a child is stuck. This page lists the exact rules of the LogikLand kids crossword, explains the numbering, and checks each rule on a complete ages 8-12 grid.

What the grid looks like

A LogikLand kids crossword has no black squares. The grid is drawn with only the squares that hold a letter, and the words form a connected shape, like a small branching tree. Below the grid, the clues are in two columns: Across on the left and Down on the right. In the older level the grid can be up to 11 squares wide and tall, and in the younger level up to 8.

Every answer is a single word. At the older level an answer has 3 to 7 letters, and at the younger level 3 to 5 letters, so a child never has to guess where a word breaks in two. The grid is drawn with large squares and the clue text is sized to fit under it, so the page stays readable for a young reader.

How the numbers work

The small number in the corner of a square tells you that a word starts there. Numbers are given in reading order: from left to right on the top row, then the next row down, and so on. If an across word and a down word start in the same square, they share one number. Then the number appears twice in the clues, once in each column.

The rules

1. Write one letter in each square.
2. Across answers read from left to right and down answers read from top to bottom.
3. Where two answers cross, the square belongs to both, so both must use the same letter.
4. The number of squares in a row is the number of letters in the answer.
5. Letters have no accents. In French, É is written E, and in German Ä, Ö and Ü are written A, O and U, with ß written as SS.
6. Two words never run side by side. Squares next to each other in a line always belong to the same word.
7. Each word crosses at least one other word, so you always have a letter to use once you have solved a first clue.

The rules on a real grid

This is an ages 8-12 grid with the theme animals, made by the generator. It has ten words in an 11 by 11 grid.

Look at how the rules work together here. The grid has ten words, but some words cross many others. TERMITE alone crosses four other words, so once you know it, four more clues have a letter ready. A grid like this is solved in an order that follows the crossings, not the numbers.

Try it: 9 across is "A big cat with spots" and the answer has seven squares. Its fifth square is also the third square of 8 down, "A farm animal with horns and a beard". The word is LEOPARD, so the A at its fifth place is the A of GOAT.

Reading the clues

The shape of a clue tells you the kind of answer. In LogikLand's English kids word list of 3,005 entries, 326 clues begin with "To", and almost all of them belong to the theme actions: 266 of the 313 action clues start that way. If a clue starts with "To", the answer is a verb. About 1,400 clues start with "A" or "An" and describe a thing or an animal. Clues such as "The sound a duck makes" and "The colour of grass" name something that belongs to a category, here a sound and a colour.

Checking your answers

The how-to-play page printed in a LogikLand kids crossword book gives a simple check: every square has a letter, and your grid matches the solutions at the end of the book. A good habit before you look: read each crossing. If an across answer puts R where the down answer needs S, one of the two is wrong. Our suggestion, not a rule of the puzzle: trust the answer you are most sure of, the one with the clearest clue, and change the other.

Questions

To make a whole book, create a free account and use the Kids Crossword assistant. For the age levels and a first puzzle, read crossword puzzles for kids. For solving methods, see how to solve a kids crossword and advanced kids crossword techniques.