Printable puzzles for care homes and activity groups
If you run activities in a care home, a day center, a library or a club, you need puzzles that are free, easy to read, ready to print and new every day. Here's what we make for exactly that, how big large print really is, and a few ideas for running a puzzle session that the whole room enjoys.
By Brasslight Games ·
What's free, and where to find it
Our printables page has a new set of PDFs every day, with the puzzles from the past week:
Crossword: easy, medium and hard in one file, plus a separate large-print edition of the easy one.
Word search: the day's themed grid, plus a large-print edition.
Sudoku: an easy and a medium grid.
Mini crossword: a 5 by 5 grid that takes a few minutes.
Every file has the answers on its last page, so a helper can check without anyone peeking. They print on US Letter paper and fit A4 too if you choose Fit to page. For the holidays there are Thanksgiving and Christmas packs, each with a word search and a crossword at normal and large print.
They are free to print and copy for your residents, members or class, as many as you need. The only thing we ask is that you don't sell them.
How big is large print?
The sight loss charity RNIB describes clear print as usually 14 point, large print as 16 point or higher, and giant print as 18 point or larger.[1] It also suggests the simplest test of all: ask the person what size they find comfortable.[1]
Our large-print sheets are at the giant end of that scale. The large-print word search has 10 words on a 10 by 10 grid, with the letters at 23 point and the word list at 18 point. The large-print crossword gives the grid a page of its own, with big squares, and puts the clues on the next page at 19 point, so nobody has to read small type between the squares. The standard word search uses 17 point letters, which many people find comfortable without the large-print edition.
The fonts are plain, with no fancy lettering, and the grids are black on white with nothing printed behind them, so they photocopy cleanly.
Above: today's Large Print Word Search, the same puzzle as today's large-print printable. On a tablet it makes a good shared screen for a small group. Open Large Print Word Search on its own page →
Running a puzzle session
England's care guidance from NICE says older people in care homes should be offered chances during their day to take part in meaningful activity, and it counts social and leisure activities such as reading, arts and crafts and conversation.[2] A puzzle session can be all three. Some approaches that work well with a group:
The read-aloud crossword. Put one large-print grid where everyone can see it, or on a flip chart, and read the clues aloud. Our easy clues are short, plain definitions with no crossword tricks, so people who say they "don't do crosswords" often get the first answer.
Word search in pairs. Two people, one sheet, one pencil each. Pairs talk more than people working alone, and nobody gets stuck for long.
Something for every level. Bring the large-print sheets, the standard ones and a sudoku, and let people choose. Some will finish the hard crossword before you've handed out the rest.
No clock, no score. Unless your group loves a contest, leave the timing out. Finishing is its own reward.
Because the printables are the same puzzles as the site that day, a relative at home can do the same crossword and talk it over on the phone or at the next visit.
Puzzles for different abilities
Not everyone wants the same challenge, and that's fine. For a gentle start, the Mini Crossword has only a handful of clues, and the large-print word search has ten words that can run forwards or backwards. The easy crossword is an 11 by 11 grid of everyday words. For people who enjoy numbers, the easy sudoku needs only the basic steps, while the medium one asks a little more.
For anyone who finds pencils hard to hold or sheets hard to read, the same puzzles work on a tablet, where letters can be made bigger still (see below). And for a group that enjoys a quiz more than a grid, Daily Trivia has five questions a day, with a short explanation for each answer that makes a good talking point.
On a tablet instead of paper
Everything on Suvi plays in a web browser, with nothing to install and no sign-up, so a care home's tablet is ready the moment it is switched on. Tap Aa Bigger text at the top of any page and the words get bigger everywhere on that device, and it stays that way. The Large Print Word Search, Large Print Crossword and Large Print Sudoku are made for bigger letters and bigger buttons.
There are no pop-up adverts to tap by mistake. On a stand in the middle of a table, one tablet can carry a small group through a word search, with residents taking turns to find a word.
Seasonal sessions
Seasonal puzzles give a session a reason and a talking point. Around Thanksgiving and Christmas, the holiday packs have a themed word search and crossword at normal and large print, and the Thanksgiving puzzles and Christmas puzzles pages have a holiday word search to play on screen, with a new grid every day.
All year round there is a new themed crossword and word search every Monday, from gardening to the 1980s, which makes a good weekly fixture: "what's this week's theme?" is a question people start asking.
A daily puzzle on your own website
If your home, library or group has a website or a newsletter page, you can put a free daily puzzle on it: a sudoku, a crossword, a word search and more, changing by itself every day. It has no adverts and needs no sign-up. Copy one line of code from our puzzles for your website page and paste it in. Families who visit your site get something to do, and so do residents with their own tablets.
Questions
Are the printables really free for a care home?
Yes. Print and copy as many as you need for residents, members, pupils or library visitors. We only ask that you don't sell them.
What paper size are they?
US Letter. They print fine on A4 too: choose Fit to page in your print settings.
Where are the answers?
On the last page of every PDF, so you can keep that page back and hand out the rest.
How often are there new puzzles?
Every day. The printables page has each day's puzzles from the past week, and the holiday packs are there all year.