Word Ladder
Word ladder is a classic game in which you make a new word from a previous one by adding or changing one letter.
These are among the most popular of all the resources in my store. They are simple to learn yet provide a fun and interesting challenge.
Sometimes there are clues to help identify the next word in the ladder. Sometimes, you just have to rely on your own wits.
Printable
Change one letter from the 4-letter or 5-letter word each Word Ladder to make the next word. Keep the chain going all the way to the end. These worksheets start off easier but become progressively more challenging.
Word Ladder is a fun distance learning game and these task cards always spark a lot of discussion and cooperation between students as they try to find the correct words in the Word Ladder.
With the easier worksheets, there are cryptic or dictionary definitions by way of clues to help you solve the Word Ladder. Work both forwards as well as backwards to find all the missing words.
This Word Ladder PDF task card resource consists of the following puzzles:
- 24 x 4-letter word ladders each with 4 words to find – clues included
- 12 x 5-letter word ladders each with 5 words to find – clues included
- 4 x 5-letter word ladders each with 4 words to find – no clues included
- 2 x 4-letter word ladders chains each with 12 words to find and each with 3 intermediate words provided for help – no clues included
- 1 x answers sheet with all the solutions provided in a handy and easy to read format
Printable
Add one letter from the 4-letter or 5-letter word each Word Ladder to make the next word. Keep the chain going all the way to the end. These worksheets start off easier but become progressively more challenging.
Word Ladder is a fun distance learning game and these task cards always spark a lot of discussion and cooperation between students as they try to find the correct words in the Word Ladder.
With the easier worksheets, the letters in the subsequent words are provided with the exception of the new letter(s).
This Word Ladder PDF task card resource consists of the following puzzles:
- 16 x 3-5 letter word ladders each with 2 new words with 1 missing letter to find – clues included and with color-coding help
- 8 x 3-5 letter word ladders each with 2 new words to find with all the letters missing – clues included and with color-coding help
- 8 x 3-6 letter word ladders each with 3 new words to find with all the letters missing – clues included and with color-coding help
- 12 x 3-5 letter word ladders each with 2 new words to find with all the letters missing – clues included but with no color-coding help
- 8 x 3-6 letter word ladders each with 2 new words to find and with all the letters missing – no clues and no color-coding assistance
- 4 x 3-7 letter word ladders each with 2 new words to find and with all the letters missing – no clues and no color-coding assistance
- 1 x 1-8 letter word ladder with 6 new words to find and with all the letters missing – no clues and no color-coding assistance
BOOM
Clues/hints are provided in the form of a combination of both dictionary definitions as well as cryptic clues to help identify the next word in the ladder.
There are 28 puzzle cards in all, with a series of instruction cards up front to help explain how it all works.
The first series of cards have 4 4-letter words on the word ladder to be found, with an anchoring word at the top and bottom. Later cards omit the bottom anchoring word, making it 5 4-letter words to be solved.
The first 4 cards also have visual clues to help point out which letter needs to be changed to form the next word in the list. This makes the puzzle easy to solve, to help boost the students’ confidence and to get them going. Thereafter, there are no such visual cues, although there’s a clue/hint on each card for each word.
This deck includes audio assistance. With help from audio assist, just click on the speaker icon next to the text to have to text read out.
BOOM
Clues/hints are provided in the form of a combination of both dictionary definitions as well as cryptic clues to help identify the next word in the ladder.
There are 17 puzzle cards in all, with a series of instruction cards up front to help explain how it all works.
The first series of cards have 5 5-letter words on the word ladder to be found, with an anchoring word at the top and bottom. Later cards omit the clue/hint, making it harder to solve. The last 2 cards are longer ladders with 12 4-letter words to be found.
The first 2 cards also have visual clues to help point out which letter needs to be changed to form the next word in the list. This makes the puzzle easy to solve, to help boost the students’ confidence and to get them going. Thereafter, there are no such visual cues, although there’s a clue/hint on each card for each word.
This deck includes audio assistance. With help from audio assist, just click on the speaker icon next to the text to have to text read out.
BOOM
Clues/hints are provided in the form of a combination of both dictionary definitions as well as cryptic clues to help identify the next word in the ladder.
There are 16 puzzle cards in all, with 2 new words to be found on each card. Instruction cards up front help explain how it all works.
In this easier deck, there are clues as well as color-coding to help make it easy to identify which letter needs to be added to create the next new word in the ladder. Also, the letters from the previous words are included in the subsequent words.
This deck includes audio assistance. With help from audio assist, just click on the speaker icon next to the text to have to text read out.
BOOM
Clues/hints are provided in the form of a combination of both dictionary definitions as well as cryptic clues to help identify the next word in the ladder.
There are 16 puzzle cards in all, with 2 new words to be found on each card. Instruction cards up front help explain how it all works.
In this easier deck, there are still clues and color-coding to help make it easy to identify which letter needs to be added to create the next new word in the ladder. However, the letters in the subsequent words are also not present, so you have to enter them all in.
This deck includes audio assistance. With help from audio assist, just click on the speaker icon next to the text to have to text read out.
BOOM
Clues/hints are provided in the form of a combination of both dictionary definitions as well as cryptic clues to help identify the next word in the ladder.
There are 16 puzzle cards in all, with 2 new words to be found on each card. Instruction cards up front help explain how it all works.
In this harder deck, there are still clues to help make it easy to identify which letter needs to be added to create the next new word in the ladder but no longer any color-coding. The letters in the subsequent words are also not present, so you have to enter them all in.
This deck includes audio assistance. With help from audio assist, just click on the speaker icon next to the text to have to text read out.
BOOM
Clues/hints are provided in the form of a combination of both dictionary definitions as well as cryptic clues to help identify the next word in the ladder.
There are 13 puzzle cards in all, with 2 or more new words to be found on each card. Instruction cards up front help explain how it all works.
In this harder deck, there are no clues not color-coding to help. The first and last words are given, so you have to figure out which words links them when adding one extra letter at a time.
This deck includes audio assistance. With help from audio assist, just click on the speaker icon next to the text to have to text read out.
Change one letter of each word on each Google slide to make a new word. Keep the chain going until you reach the last word.
Clues/hints are provided in the form of a combination of both dictionary definitions as well as cryptic clues to help identify the next word in the ladder.
There are 28 puzzle slides in all, with a series of instruction slides up front to help explain how it all works. An answers slide is also provided!
This set of GOOGLE Slides comes with audio assist. Just click on the instruction or hint to have it read out aloud.
Change one letter of each word on each Google slide to make a new word. Keep the chain going until you reach the last word.
Clues/hints are provided in the form of a combination of both dictionary definitions as well as cryptic clues to help identify the next word in the ladder.
There are 18 5-letter & 4-letter puzzle slides in all, with a series of instruction slides up front to help explain how it all works. An answers slide is also provided!