Print Joey

Literacy

Themed crossword puzzles

Themed crossword settings

Choose a topic
Words in the puzzle

Each topic holds more words than one puzzle uses, so Regenerate deals a different set.

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Worksheet setup

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Animals crosswordName: 12345678910Across2. A brightly coloured bird that can copy what it hears4. A huge ocean mammal that breathes through ablowhole6. A big cat whose coat is covered in dark rosettes7. A small night-time animal covered in prickly spines10. An eight-legged creature that spins a silk webDown1. Its very long neck lets it feed high in the trees3. A large bird of prey with hooked beak and keeneyesight5. A slow land reptile carrying a hard domed shell8. A clever sea mammal that leaps clear of the water9. A black-and-white seabird that swims but cannot flyCreated with Print Joey — printjoey.com
Page 1 of 2
Answer keyGIPARROTAFEFWHALEGTLOLEOPARDTHEDGEHOGOILSPEHPSPIDERNNGUIN12345678910Created with Print Joey — printjoey.com
Page 2 of 2 — answer key

Quick guide

How it works

Print a crossword without writing one. Choose a topic — animals, space, dinosaurs or seasons — and the generator picks a set of words from that topic’s bank, writes them into a numbered grid and prints the clues underneath. Each bank holds more words than one puzzle uses, so pressing regenerate deals a different puzzle on the same topic. Download the result as an A4 or US Letter PDF with an answer key.

Pick a topic, set how many words, then press regenerate for a different puzzle on the same topic.

  1. Choose a topic — animals, space, dinosaurs or seasons. The words and clues come written for you.

  2. Set how many words the puzzle should use, and press regenerate for a different set from the same topic.

  3. Download the PDF with its answer key, or copy a share link that reproduces this exact puzzle.

Teaching tip

Using these worksheets in teaching

A themed crossword is a vocabulary sheet whose vocabulary is already chosen, which makes it the fastest of these makers to reach a class and the least specific to what that class is studying. Use it for the gaps — a wet lunchtime, a cover lesson, a fast finisher, the last ten minutes of a topic — rather than as the practice for a particular list, which is what the vocabulary crossword is for. The clues are written to be solvable from general knowledge at primary level rather than from having read a particular text, so a child who has never studied dinosaurs can still finish the dinosaur sheet with the word bank on.

Frequently asked questions

  • Which topics are there?

    Four: animals, space, dinosaurs and seasons. Each is a bank of curated words with a written clue for every one, checked for accuracy and for reading age before it shipped. They are not generated on the fly and they are not translated from anywhere — they were written for this sheet.

  • Will the same topic always give the same puzzle?

    No. Each bank holds more words than one puzzle uses, so the generator deals a subset — press regenerate and you get a different set of words from the same topic, in a different grid. That is what makes one topic usable as a set of sheets rather than a single sheet.

  • Can I edit the words or add my own?

    Not on this page, and that is the point of it: choosing a topic is the whole input, which is what makes a printable puzzle thirty seconds’ work. If you want your own words and clues, use the crossword maker; if you want your own terms and definitions, use the vocabulary crossword maker.

  • What does the word count change?

    How many of the topic’s words are dealt into the puzzle. Fewer words make a smaller, sparser grid with larger squares on the page; more words interlock more densely and take longer to solve. It changes nothing else, so you can raise it and lower it without losing the square size or the hints you chose.

  • Is it available in French or Spanish?

    Not yet. The words and the clues are the sheet here — unlike the crossword maker, where you supply them — so a French page would print French headings over English clues. The banks have to be written in each language before the page exists in it.

  • Is there an answer key?

    Yes. The completed grid prints on a second page of the same PDF, so you can check the sheet without solving it yourself.

Related tools

Last reviewed: July 2026. Worksheet content is generated by deterministic algorithms and covered by automated correctness tests — no AI-generated answers.