List the words you wish to build into your word find puzzle, using the pencil and a sheet of paper.
Draw a square grid on a blank sheet of paper. Space 16 vertical lines evenly across the page, using the ruler as a straight-edge guide for your pencil. Cross the vertical lines with 16 evenly spaced horizontal lines, thus creating a square grid, 15 squares wide by 15 squares deep. This is an appropriate size for a beginner's word search. Instead of drawing lines, you can also use graph paper, which is already divided into a grid.
Using one grid box for each letter, write the words from your list on the grid, using the pencil. Print clearly and use uppercase letters. Some words should be horizontal and some vertical. Diagonal and backward words will challenge older children. Place the words far apart from each other, leaving blank grids in between. Copy this page, which is your word find puzzle's answer key, using either a copier or a scanner. If you use a scanner, you'll be able to save the image to your computer to print it out.
Fill in all of the blank boxes in the grid with random letters.
Look carefully at your word search puzzle to see if the addition of random letters generated any offensive or inappropriate words. If so, use the eraser on your pencil to remove a letter and replace it with another. Refer to your answer key so you don't erase any of the words in your puzzle. Review the puzzle again for offensive words. When you're satisfied, use the copier or scan the puzzle into your computer to print as many copies as you need.