Rivers of Mexico: Río Bravo, Grijalva, Balsas and Lerma

Mexico's main rivers. The Río Bravo, called the Rio Grande in the United States, marks the northern border; the Grijalva flows from Guatemala through Chiapas and Tabasco; the Balsas crosses the south to the Pacific; the Lerma feeds Lake Chapala; the Pánuco reaches the Gulf at Tampico; and the Mayo flows through Sonora.

Two more come from the dry northwest: the Fuerte and the Yaqui run down from the Sierra Madre Occidental to the Gulf of California, and the Yaqui takes its name from the Yaqui people of Sonora.

Rivers of Mexico and Central America Vocabulary: 8 Words to Find

Words run across, up and down; 4 of the 8 read backwards. The longest word is Grijalva, with 8 letters.

Balsas: One of Mexico's longest rivers, flowing to the Pacific.
Bravo: The Río Bravo, Mexico's name for the Rio Grande.
Fuerte: A river of northwest Mexico that runs from the Sierra Madre Occidental through Sinaloa to the Gulf of California.
Grijalva: A river that flows from Guatemala through southern Mexico to the Gulf of Mexico.
Lerma: A river of central Mexico that flows into Lake Chapala.
Mayo: A river of Sonora, in northwestern Mexico.
Panuco: A river of eastern Mexico that flows into the Gulf of Mexico at Tampico.
Yaqui: A river of Sonora, in northwest Mexico, named after the Yaqui people, that flows into the Gulf of California.

How to Solve the Rivers of Mexico and Central America Word Search

"Grijalva", with the only G and J, fills a whole row, reading across, like "Balsas" and "Lerma". "Yaqui" has the only Q and reads backwards, and so do "Fuerte", with the only F, and "Panuco". "Bravo" is the only word that runs upward, and "Mayo" the only one that runs down.

Mexico Rivers Activities

Trace each river on a map of Mexico.
Find the two rivers that flow into the Gulf of California.
Ask why one river has two names.