North Sea Crossword Puzzle for Kids
Free printable educational crossword puzzle. Every clue is a plain-English sentence from the Simple English Wikipedia article on North Sea, with the key word blanked out.
North Sea Crossword
Name: ____________________ Date: ______________
| 12M | 6E | T | E | R | S | |||||||
| U | ||||||||||||
| 4F | O | R | M | E | D | |||||||
| O | ||||||||||||
| P | 5D | |||||||||||
| 10E | V | E | N | |||||||||
| P | 1B | 14E | ||||||||||
| 9C | T | A | N | |||||||||
| 2F | I | S | H | I | N | G | G | |||||
| T | K | L | ||||||||||
| I | A | |||||||||||
| E | 3T | N | ||||||||||
| 7C | O | A | S | 11T | 13C | O | V | E | R | E | D | |
| H | W | |||||||||||
| 8N | O | R | W | A | Y | |||||||
| U | R | |||||||||||
| G | D | |||||||||||
| H | S |
Across
- 2. People have been _____ in the North Sea for thousands of years. (7 letters)
- 4. About 20,000 years ago the ice melted and the North Sea was _____ (made). (6 letters)
- 7. About 80 million people live near the North Sea, at most 150 km away from the _____. (5 letters)
- 8. That is at the parallel of the Geirangerfjord in _____. (6 letters)
- 10. With some storms there are _____ waves breaking there. (4 letters)
- 12. Generally, the water is about 90 _____ deep there. (6 letters)
- 13. In the last ice age the North Sea was _____ by large areas of ice called glaciers. (7 letters)
Down
- 1. In the southern part, there are many sand _____. (4 letters)
- 3. In the North, the North sea is open _____ the Atlantic. (7 letters)
- 5. In the south, the _____ is at most 50 metres. (5 letters)
- 6. Most of the North sea is on the _____ Continental shelf. (6 letters)
- 9. But the spread of the name could also be from the view of the _____ of the Hanseatic League. (6 letters)
- 11. According to the Oslo-Paris Treaty of 1962 it is a bit more to the west and the north _____. (6 letters)
- 14. In the south, the North Sea becomes the English Channel, a sea between _____ and France. (7 letters)
Clues are sentences from the Simple English Wikipedia article “North Sea” (revision 10821030, CC BY-SA 4.0). crosswordprint.com/printable-crosswords/physical-geography/north-sea-for-kids/
North Sea Word Search
Name: ____________________ Date: ______________
Words to Find
crosswordprint.com/printable-crosswords/physical-geography/north-sea-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 North Sea, 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.
North Sea Crossword Answer Key & Definitions
Show Complete Answers & Word Definitions
- 2 Across: FISHING — Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Simple English Wikipedia: Fishing
- 4 Across: FORMED
- 7 Across: COAST — The coast also means the land next to the sea, which can also be called the shore, or sea-shore. Simple English Wikipedia: Coast
- 8 Across: NORWAY — Norway is a country in the north of Europe. Simple English Wikipedia: Norway
- 10 Across: EVEN — An even number is an integer that can be divided by two and remain an integer or has no not real remainder. Simple English Wikipedia: Even number
- 12 Across: METERS — The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling) (symbol: m) is the basic unit of length in the SI measurement system. Simple English Wikipedia: Metre
- 13 Across: COVERED
- 1 Down: BANK — A bank is a financial institution where customers can save or borrow money. Simple English Wikipedia: Bank
- 3 Down: TOWARDS
- 5 Down: DEPTH — In math, the distance between the nearest end and the farthest end of an object is its depth. Simple English Wikipedia: Depth
- 6 Down: EUROPE — Europe is the western part of the continent of Eurasia, often thought of as its own continent. Simple English Wikipedia: Europe
- 9 Down: 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
- 11 Down: THOUGH
- 14 Down: ENGLAND — England is a country and the largest of the four countries which make up the United Kingdom. Simple English Wikipedia: England
Definitions adapted from Simple English Wikipedia and Wikipedia articles (week 2026-W41), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Read about North Sea
The North Sea is a sea that is part of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Europe. The North Sea is between Norway and Denmark in the east, Scotland and England in the west, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France in the south.
Borders
The Skagerrak connects the North Sea to the Baltic Sea. In the south, the North Sea becomes the English Channel, a sea between England and France. This is called the Dover Straits and is very busy with ships.
The border between the North Sea and the Skagerrak is at an imagined line between Lindesnes in Norway, and Hanstholm in Denmark. In the North, the North sea is open towards the Atlantic. The border between the two is an imagined line from Northern Scotland, to Shetland, and then to Ålesund in Norway. According to the Oslo-Paris Treaty of 1962 it is a bit more to the west and the north though. The treaty puts it at 5° East longitude, and 62° North latitude. That is at the parallel of the Geirangerfjord in Norway.
Other facts
On average, the North Sea has a depth of only 94 meters. About 80 million people live near the North Sea, at most 150 km away from the coast. Together with the English Channel in the south, the southern North Sea is the busiest body of water in the world.
Rivers that drain into it
Well-known rivers that drain into the North Sea include the Tay (at Dundee), the Forth (at Edinburgh), the Tyne (South Shields), the Wear (at Sunderland), the Tees (near Middlesbrough), the Elbe (at Cuxhaven), the Weser (at Bremerhaven), the Rhine and Meuse or Maas (at Rotterdam), the Scheldt (at Flushing or Vlissingen), the Thames, and the Humber (at Hull), and the river Nairn (at Nairn)
The Kiel Canal, one of the world's busiest artificial waterways, connects the North Sea with the Baltic.
Name
Its name comes from its relationship to the land of the Frisians (see Frisia). They live directly to the south of the North Sea, and to the west of the East Sea (Oostzee, the Baltic Sea), the former South Sea (Zuiderzee, today's IJsselmeer) and the today reclaimed Middle Sea (Middelzee). But the spread of the name could also be from the view of the cities of the Hanseatic League. Some of its main cities, like Lübeck, Bremen or Hamburg had the same view.
In classical times this body of water was also called the Oceanum Germanicum or Mare Germanicum, meaning German Ocean or Sea. This name was commonly used in English and other languages along with the name North Sea, until the early eighteenth century. By the late nineteenth century, German Sea was a rare, scholarly usage even in Germany. In Danish the North Sea is also named Vesterhavet (besides Nordsøen), meaning Western Ocean because it is west of Denmark.
Geographic divisions
Most of the North sea is on the European Continental shelf. On average, the depth is about 93 to 94 meters only. In the south it is very shallow, only 25 to 35 meters. In the north in the bathyal zone north of Shetland, this depth increases to between 100 and 200 metres. In the south, the depth is at most 50 metres. An exception to this is the Norwegian Trench. It is deepest there, with a depth of 725 metres. The most shallow part of it is a sand bank called Dogger Bank. In the southern part, there are many sand banks.
Looking at the satellite picture it is easy to see the geographic divisions of the North Sea:
the northern North Sea, with the Norwegian Trench, near the Skagerrak.
The southern north sea is composed of the Southern Bight, before the coast of Belgium and the Netherlands and the German Bight before the coastline of Germany. The Dogger Bank is the limit between the southern and central parts. The Waddenzee runs all the way from Den Helder in the Netherlands to Esbjerg in Denmark.
The Dogger Bank covers an area about half the size of the Netherlands. There, the North Sea has a depth of between 13 and 20 metres only. The area is very famous for fishing. With some storms there are even waves breaking there.
History
In the last ice age the North Sea was covered by large areas of ice called glaciers. About 20,000 years ago the ice melted and the North Sea was formed (made).
North Sea oil
In the 1960s, geologists found large areas of oil and natural gas under the North Sea. Most of the oil fields are owned by the United Kingdom and Norway but some belong to Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany. Drilling began in the 1960s and led to a famous argument between the UK Government and Scottish Nationalists how the revenue (money) from the oil should be spent.
Text adapted from the Simple English Wikipedia article “North Sea” (revision 10821030, 2026-04-16), authors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.