Fall Farm Words With a Haunted Hidden Message

Autumn on the farm gets a little spooky in this word search. Look for the scarecrow, the corn maze, the hayride and the haystack, the old barn and the farmhouse, the rooster, and the pumpkins, orchard apples and cider of the harvest season.

When the last word is found, the leftover letters spell out a farmyard joke with a Halloween twist. Long before pumpkins, people in Ireland and Scotland carved lanterns out of turnips for the old autumn festival of Samhain, a custom that grew into the jack-o'-lantern.

How the hidden message works

In this puzzle, every letter that is not part of a word belongs to a secret message of 41 letters. Find all 12 words first. Then read the letters that are left over, starting at the top left and going row by row from left to right, and write them down in order. Online, the message lights up on the grid the moment you find the last word. On the printable PDF there is a blank space for each letter, and the answer key shows the full message.

Haunted Farm Vocabulary: 12 Words to Find

Words run across, up and down, and diagonally; 6 of the 12 read backwards. The longest words are Scarecrow and Farmhouse, with 9 letters each.

Scarecrow: A figure dressed in old clothes and set in a field to scare birds away from the crops.
Pumpkins: Large orange squashes, picked in the fall and carved for Halloween.
Hayride: A ride on a wagon full of hay pulled by a tractor, a fall farm favorite.
Corn Maze: A maze cut through a field of tall corn, a popular autumn farm activity.
Barn: A large farm building where animals, hay and machines are kept.
Rooster: A male chicken that crows at sunrise.
Haystack: A large pile of dried grass stored outdoors on a farm.
Tractor: A powerful farm vehicle that pulls plows and hay wagons.
Farmhouse: The main house on a farm, where the farmer's family lives.
Orchard: A field of fruit trees, like apples, picked in the fall.
Cider: A drink made from pressed apples, often served warm and spiced in the fall.
Harvest: The time of year when crops are gathered from the fields.

How to Solve the Haunted Farm Hidden Message Word Search

Three words start with H: hayride, haystack and harvest. "Scarecrow" and "farmhouse" are the longest, nine letters each. The Z of "corn maze" is the rarest letter in the list.

Pumpkin Patch and Farm Field Trip Activities

Use it before a farm field trip or a visit to a pumpkin patch.
Ask kids to draw the scarecrow from the list and give it a name.
Explain the pun in the joke: "poultry" (chickens) sounds like "poltergeist".