Puzzle Pastime for care homes and activity coordinators
A free weekly large-print puzzle pack, ready-made session ideas, and a poster for the noticeboard — no cost, no accounts, and no limit on how many copies you print.
Get this week’s pack Download the noticeboard poster
What's in the free weekly pack?
Every week we publish seven large-print word searches and seven genuinely easy sudoku, each with a full answer key at the back, printed on their own dated pages. Grid squares are around 1.5cm across and the type is dark on plain paper, so nothing needs a magnifier at the table.
Full instructions and printing tips are in our printable puzzle pack for care homes guide.
Can we print as many copies as we need?
Yes. The pack is free and there is no limit on copies — print one set for a table of four or fifty for the whole home. Nothing is metered, nothing needs a login, and nobody will ever chase you for payment.
What session formats work well in a care home?
Five ready-made formats to borrow or adapt: Tea & Teasers, a relaxed 30 minutes with a puzzle and a pot of tea; Morning Five, a brisk 15-minute warm-up; Grand Sudoku, 25 minutes on a single big sudoku as a group; Puzzle Post, sheets handed or posted out for people to do in their own time; and Memory Lane, a fuller 40-minute session built around Yesteryear and conversation.
- Tea & Teasers — 30 minutes, a puzzle and a pot of tea
- Morning Five — 15 minutes, a brisk warm-up before the day gets going
- Grand Sudoku — 25 minutes, one big sudoku solved together
- Puzzle Post — sheets handed round or posted out, no fixed time
- Memory Lane — 40 minutes, Yesteryear and conversation together
More ideas, including how to introduce a session and keep it moving, are in activity ideas for care home coordinators.
How do we run a session with residents of mixed ability?
Offer more than one puzzle at the same table — a word search and an easy sudoku cover very different skills — and let people choose or move between them. Nobody needs to finish, there is no timer and no score, so a resident who manages three words has had exactly as good a session as one who finishes the sheet.
Our quiet activities for memory cafés guide has more on running a calm table where everyone can join in at their own pace.
Can we play on a big screen instead of printing?
Yes — any of the daily puzzles work well projected or shown on a television for a group to solve together, calling out letters and answers as a team, with nobody needing their own copy or their own screen.
See big-screen puzzles for group sessions for the puzzles that work best this way, and how to set it up.
What does it cost, and do we need to sign up?
Nothing, and no. Puzzle Pastime is free to play and free to print, with no account, no app and no card details, for a single resident or a whole activities calendar.