Action Verbs Word Search

Action Verbs, one by one

This word search was designed with primary school and preschool children in mind. Here is a short note on each word, useful for talking about it after solving the grid.

Eating — One of the first actions children learn to name, easily linked to mealtime routines.

Running — A fast, energetic action that's easy to act out and always popular with children.

Reading — An action that opens the door to every story and every other subject.

Writing — Goes hand in hand with reading and is one of the first skills built at school.

Sleeping — A calm, restful action, easy to mime by closing the eyes and resting the head on folded hands.

Jumping — A joyful, physical action that children love acting out with real jumps.

Singing — Connects words to music and rhythm, making vocabulary stick even faster.

Swimming — A summer favourite action, often linked to pools, lakes and the seaside.

How to use it in class

With younger children, it works well to tackle the puzzle in pairs: while one child searches, the other checks the word list. Reading the list aloud together before starting helps every child know exactly what to look for, even those who read more slowly.

Activities to try after

• Play "Simon says": give commands using the verbs (jump! sing! run!) and children act only when "Simon says" is used.
• Mime a verb from the grid and have classmates guess which one it is.
• Write one sentence per verb starting with "I" (I am running, I am singing).

Easier or harder version

Start with the simplest, most physical verbs for younger children. Older students can move to a bigger grid and explore past and future tense versions of the same verbs.

Why action words matter

The verbs chosen for this grid are everyday actions that children perform constantly, which makes them easy to understand and remember. Eating, running, reading, writing, sleeping, jumping, singing and swimming can all be shown with the body, and this is a huge learning advantage: when an action can be acted out, the word sticks in memory without needing translation. It's no accident that these are among the first verbs taught in any new language.

Learning action verbs through movement also supports memory in a physical, embodied way: the brain links the word not just to a meaning but to a felt sensation. This is why classroom games built around movement — mimicking, acting, racing to perform an action — tend to work far better than simply memorising a list. Verbs describing motion, rest and creativity together (running and sleeping, singing and writing) give children a balanced first vocabulary of what the body and mind can do.

Movement games with verbs

The best way to learn action verbs is to move. Try "Simon says": the teacher gives a command (jump! run! sing!) and children act only if it's preceded by "Simon says". It's great fun and fixes the verb to its meaning. Another variation is "verb charades": one child mimes an action found in the grid and the others guess which verb it represents. After the game, each student can write one sentence per verb using "I", turning play into a small writing exercise.

Verbs as the engine of stories

Without verbs, no story could ever happen — they are what makes things occur. A lovely closing activity is building a short adventure together using every verb from the list in order: a character who wakes up, eats, runs, jumps, swims, sings and finally sleeps. Children discover that putting actions in sequence is already storytelling, and that grammar is simply the toolkit we use to shape what we imagine.

Building a daily routine story

These eight verbs also map neatly onto a typical day: waking up leads to eating, then perhaps reading or writing at school, running and jumping at break time, and finally sleeping again at night. Walking through a whole day using only the words from this grid gives children a simple structure for describing their own routine out loud, which is often one of the very first extended speaking tasks in a new language.