Chicago Crossword Puzzle for Kids
Free printable educational crossword puzzle. Every clue is a plain-English sentence from the Simple English Wikipedia article on Chicago, with the key word blanked out.
Chicago Crossword
Name: ____________________ Date: ______________
| 10T | |||||||||||||||||
| R | |||||||||||||||||
| 12W | A | R | S | A | W | ||||||||||||
| V | |||||||||||||||||
| E | 2B | ||||||||||||||||
| 9F | O | S | 5S | I | L | 3B | U | ||||||||||
| P | E | 8H | 14C | I | T | I | E | S | |||||||||
| O | C | O | L | ||||||||||||||
| 4T | 11H | I | R | D | 6P | O | P | U | L | A | T | I | O | N | |||
| O | T | M | R | ||||||||||||||
| S | 7S | U | M | M | E | 1R | |||||||||||
| T | U | ||||||||||||||||
| 13E | L | E | C | T | E | D | N | ||||||||||
| D | N | ||||||||||||||||
| I | |||||||||||||||||
| N | |||||||||||||||||
| G |
Across
- 4. It is the _____ largest city in the United States. (5 letters)
- 6. Chicago's _____ grew when more construction jobs came. (10 letters)
- 7. There are also many mild winter and _____ days. (6 letters)
- 9. The Field Museum of Natural History has Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus _____. (6 letters)
- 12. Chicago has the most Polish people inside its city limits outside of _____. (6 letters)
- 13. He was later re-_____, but died of a heart attack. (7 letters)
- 14. The Global _____ Index ranked Chicago seventh in the world in 2017. (6 letters)
Down
- 1. Pink Line _____ from the Chicago suburb of Cicero all the way to the Loop and back. (7 letters)
- 2. In 1889, Jane Addams _____ Hull house in Chicago for children and the poor. (5 letters)
- 3. He would _____ the second mayor of Chicago to die from a heart attack while in office. (6 letters)
- 5. Most of the city's major _____ teams play within the city limits. (6 letters)
- 8. During rush _____, it runs from Wilmette to the Loop and back. (4 letters)
- 10. Many people and things _____ through Chicago to get to other places. (6 letters)
- 11. The G8 summit was moved to Camp David because Chicago already _____ the NATO summit. (6 letters)
Clues are sentences from the Simple English Wikipedia article “Chicago” (revision 10870186, CC BY-SA 4.0). crosswordprint.com/printable-crosswords/cities/chicago-for-kids/
Chicago Word Search
Name: ____________________ Date: ______________
Words to Find
crosswordprint.com/printable-crosswords/cities/chicago-for-kids/
Pick the word that completes each sentence from the Simple English Wikipedia article.
Is the sentence correct? Some sentences have one word altered.
Click a clue, then click the word it belongs to.
Unscramble each word. The clue is the sentence it was taken from.
How to Solve & Use the Answer Key
This is a fill-in crossword. Each clue is a sentence from the Simple English Wikipedia article on Chicago, with the key term blanked out. The number in parentheses shows the letter count. Solve interactively on screen or check Show answers to view the answer key. To print a clean student worksheet, press Print Puzzle.
Chicago Crossword Answer Key & Definitions
Show Complete Answers & Word Definitions
- 4 Across: THIRD — The number three (3) is one more than two, one less than four, and two less than five. Simple English Wikipedia: 3 (number)
- 6 Across: POPULATION — A population is the number of living people that live together in the same place. Simple English Wikipedia: Population
- 7 Across: SUMMER — Summer is one of the four seasons. It is the hottest season of the year. Simple English Wikipedia: Summer
- 9 Across: FOSSIL — A fossil (from Classical Latin, ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Wikipedia: Fossil
- 12 Across: WARSAW — Warsaw (In Polish: Warszawa) is the capital of Poland in Masovian Voivodeship. Simple English Wikipedia: Warsaw
- 13 Across: ELECTED — An election is a way people can choose their candidate or their preferences in a representative democracy or other form of government. Simple English Wikipedia: Election
- 14 Across: CITIES — A city has many buildings and streets. It has houses, hotels, condominiums, and apartments for many people to live in, shops where they may buy things, places for people to work, and a government to run the city and keep law and order in the city. Simple English Wikipedia: City
- 1 Down: RUNNING — Running is the way in which people or animals travel quickly on their feet. Simple English Wikipedia: Running
- 2 Down: BUILT
- 3 Down: BECOME
- 5 Down: SPORTS — Sport usually means athletic games that involve a degree of competition, such as football, basketball or cross-country Olympic skiing. Simple English Wikipedia: Sport
- 8 Down: HOUR — The hour (symbol: h) is a unit of measurement used to measure time. Simple English Wikipedia: Hour
- 10 Down: TRAVEL — Travel is the activity of going from one place to another place. Simple English Wikipedia: Travel
- 11 Down: HOSTED
Definitions adapted from Simple English Wikipedia and Wikipedia articles (week 2026-W41), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Read about Chicago
Chicago is a city in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is the third largest city in the United States. As of 2020, the population is 2,746,388. It is the city with the largest population in the Midwestern United States. Chicago is the main city of the Chicago metropolitan area, or Chicagoland. The Chicago metropolitan area has 10 million people, the third largest population in the United States.
Chicago is by Lake Michigan. Chicago became a city in 1837 and is in between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. It grew quickly in the mid-19th century. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed many square miles and made more than 100,000 people homeless. Major efforts were made to rebuild it. Chicago's population grew when more construction jobs came. By 1900, Chicago was the fifth-largest city in the world. Chicago is known for its urban planning and zoning standards, for example, new construction styles from the Chicago School of architecture, the development of the City Beautiful Movement, and the steel-framed skyscraper. Chicago built the first skyscraper in the world in 1885, the Home Insurance Building.
Chicago is a center for finance, culture, trade, industry, education, technology, telecommunications, and transportation. It is one of the largest markets of the world. The O'Hare International Airport is the fifth or sixth busiest airport in the world and first or second in the United States. The region has the largest number of federal highways. It has many railroads too. Globalization and World Cities Research Network lists Chicago as an alpha global city. The Global Cities Index ranked Chicago seventh in the world in 2017. The Chicago area generated $689 billion in 2018. It has a very diverse and balanced economy. Chicago is home to several Fortune 500 companies, including Allstate, Boeing, Exelon, Kraft Heinz, McDonald's, Mondelez International, Sears, United Airlines Holdings, and Walgreens.
58 million people visited Chicago in 2018. It was the second most visited city in the United States. New York City had 65 million visitors in 2018. Chicago had first place in the 2018 Time Out City Life Index. This index was a survey about the quality of life in different areas. 15,000 people in 32 cities did the survey.
Some landmarks in the city are Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis (Sears) Tower, Grant Park, Chicago Riverwalk, the Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. There are many universities and colleges, for example University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Chicago has professional sports teams in the major professional leagues, and two are Major League Baseball teams.
History
Jean Baptiste Point du Sable founded Chicago in the early 1700s. It was founded to create a canal to let boats on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. Later, the city became a trading center for food, crops, and fur. The city grew very fast because of how the river back then was clean and healthy to drink. In 1837, Chicago became a city. The city grew until the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. The fire lasted for almost a week. Almost half the city and its population were lost in the fire. After the fire, Chicago grew faster than ever.
Then, city's economy grew and more people migrated there from other parts of the world. many of the immigrants were Germans, Jews, Irish, Swedes, Poles, and Czechs. The immigrants were almost two-thirds of the city's population. In 1889, Jane Addams built Hull house in Chicago for children and the poor. In 1893, the city hosted the World's Columbian Exposition. In 1892, they created the University of Chicago.
In 1919, the city became known for its gangsters, for example Al Capone, Dean O’Banion, Bugs Moran, and Tony Accardo. In the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, Al Capone ordered gangsters to be shot on St. Valentine's Day. Then, the city became known for John Dillinger, a bank robber. He could rob a bank in under two minutes. Dillinger was shot and killed at the Biograph Theatre in 1934.
Anton Cermak was the 44th mayor of Chicago. He was shot and killed during the Democratic party convention in 1933. A man tried to shoot Franklin D. Roosevelt and Cermak blocked the bullet to save the President. Cermak died hours later. In 1955, Mayor Richard J. Daley was a powerful and well known Democrat. He helped Martin Luther King and other activists share their thoughts without being arrested in Chicago.
The 1968 Democratic National Convention had large protests and riots outside the convention. Richard J. Daley helped create the construction sites for the Willis Tower, O'Hare International Airport, the McCormick Place, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Jane Byrne helped Chicago to become one of the most popular tourist attractions in the United States. She was the first female mayor of Chicago.
Culture
Chicago has a very well-known culture. Some of the many things Chicago is famous for are: Chicago-style hot dogs, Chicago-style (deep dish) pizza, Maxwell Street Polish Sausage, jazz music, and 1920s gangsters, for example Al Capone. Chicago is also known for architecture, for example the Sears Tower and museums. It is also known for its loyal sports fans.
Chicago was home to the Bijou Theater, the longest-running gay adult theater and sex club in the United States. It opened in 1970, and it permanently closed its doors in September 2015.
For many years, the Sears Tower was the tallest building in the world. It is the second tallest building in the United States.
Chicago has the most Polish people inside its city limits outside of Warsaw. Historic U.S. Route 66 starts in Chicago by Grant Park in front of the Art Institute of Chicago.
People
Chicago is a multicultural city with many Italians, Greeks, Gypsies, Serbians and Eastern Europeans living in the city. Chicago has a large Hispanic population with many Puerto Ricans and Mexicans. Other ethnic groups in Chicago are African American, Irish, Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Russians, Bulgarians, Romanians, Armenians, and Japanese.
Economy
Chicago is a major world financial center. It has the second largest central business district in the United States. The city is the headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (the Seventh District of the Federal Reserve). The city is also home to major financial and futures exchanges, for example the Chicago Stock Exchange, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (the "Merc"), which is owned by Chicago's CME Group. The CME Group also owns the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the Commodities Exchange Inc. (COMEX) and the Dow Jones Indexes.
The city also has markets with unusual trade contracts, for example emissions (on the Chicago Climate Exchange), and equity style indexes (on the U.S. Futures Exchange). Chase Bank has its commercial and retail banking headquarters in Chicago's Chase Tower.
Museums
The Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum was built in 1930. It is the oldest 4planetarium in the world.
The Art Institute of Chicago has a large collection of American and Impressionist art.
The Field Museum of Natural History has Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus fossil.
The Museum of Science and Industry has many exhibits, for example a real Boeing 727 jet plane. United Airlines gave it to the museum.
The Polish Museum of America is said to be haunted by famous piano player Ignacy Jan Paderewski. It has large collection of Polish art.
Sports
Sports are a big part of the cultural life in Chicago. Chicago is home to 15 sports teams. Most of the city's major sports teams play within the city limits.
Chicago has two Major League Baseball teams: the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Cubs. The White Sox play at the Guaranteed Rate Field and the Cubs play at Wrigley Field. The Chicago Cubs are one of the oldest teams in baseball. Chicago Cubs fans are dedicated and loyal to their team. The White Sox won the World Series in 2005. The Cubs won the World Series in 2016.
Chicago's National Basketball Association (NBA) team is the Chicago Bulls. For many years, Michael Jordan played for the Bulls. He helped them win six Championships in the 1990s. In 1999/2000 season Jordan was to return with the Bulls, he would have faced Lakers for the seventh championship and he would have won 11th scoring title.
The Chicago team in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is the Chicago Sky.
In American football, Chicago is the home of the Chicago Bears of the NFL and the Chicago Rush of the AFL.
Travel
Many people and things travel through Chicago to get to other places. Chicago has a complex network of trains and buses that help people who live in Chicago travel across the city. Chicago's commuter train system is called the Metra. It runs within the city and into the suburbs around Chicago. The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is a system of buses and elevated trains (called the 'L') that run inside the city and towards the outer suburbs.
O'Hare International Airport is a major center for air travel. It is the second-busiest airport in the United States after the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Chicago has another airport called the Midway Airport. Many trains use Chicago as a place to change loads and to change directions. The Chicago River is a canal between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. It is the only river to travel backwards.
Red Line running from Rogers Park near the Chicago suburb of Evanston towards Roseland.
Blue Line running from the O'Hare International Airport towards Forest Park.
Brown Line running in a loop from Albany Park towards the Loop and back.
Text adapted from the Simple English Wikipedia article “Chicago” (revision 10870186, 2026-05-26), authors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.