Looking for something to occupy the kids? Then give them our puzzle to solve and they will get a lesson in hygiene as well.
To mark Nation Puzzle Day on Friday 29th January, SafeGroup has created a fiendishly-not-that-difficult-but-entertaining wordsearch puzzle.
Click the image to download the A4 printout
All completed? – click to view the answers
As SafeGroup is a specialist cleaning and waste management company, there should be no surprise that words associated with those two topics appear in the puzzle.
Fewer sticky fingers?
SafeGroup Head of Marketing Michelle Ringland said: “As the pandemic lockdown continues, both adults and children are looking for something new to entertain and challenge the senses, so what better than a puzzle?
“We’ve created our own version of a popular word puzzle containing hidden words related to our cleaning and waste collection services that we hope people will find fun to do.
“Parents might even want to do the puzzle with their children. It could be an entertaining way to explain the importance of cleanliness, and especially hand hygiene, which his so crucial in current times. They might even have fewer sticky fingers around the house as a result, but I won’t hold my breathe!”
Solving cleaning puzzle
SafeGroup is a leading national provider of emergency and specialist cleaning services, including flood and fire cleaning and recovery, and high level access cleaning.
Its specialist teams are also carrying out COVID-19 disinfection for a wide range of clients. For example, SafeGroup operatives disinfect 6,000 London buses, three-quarters of the fleet, every month, helping essential workers travel to work in greater safety.
SafeGroup’s waste management services include flood and fire waste removal, wait and load waste collection, hazardous waste removal and fly-tip clean-up.
It’s all Greek for puzzling
National Puzzle Day was created in 2002 by US professional puzzle maker and quiz maker Jodi Jill in the USA, who worked with schools to create puzzle-based lesson plans, and it has grown in popularity ever since.
Puzzles have entertained minds going back into antiquity. One of the world’s oldest, is considered to be the Stomachion puzzle, which dates from the third century BC and is attributed to Greek philosopher Archimedes.
It has 14 pieces that must be assembled in a square frame, with 536 different solutions. We can confirm the SafeGroup word puzzle is not as mind-bending as this one!
The World’s most popular puzzle is the Rubik’s Cube. The 3D brain teaser was invented in 1974 by Hungarian inventor Erno Rubik and more than 350 million cubes have now been sold. For the record, the fastest solution was achieved in 2018, in 4.22 seconds.
Lost in the tall grass
The world’s biggest jigsaw puzzle, by number of pieces, was revealed in April 2020. The Travel Around Art puzzle by Grafika has 54,000 pieces and covers 190 sq ft. When completed it shows a giant art gallery displaying some of the world’s greatest works of art. Oh, and it costs £450.
So, what is the world’s most difficult jigsaw puzzle? There are many contenders and some that claim to be the world’s most difficult, including one that has an image on both sides.
But we like one by Impuzzible, with 1,000 pieces. It features a close-up image of grass. If you are desperate during lockdown, perhaps you could just watch the grass grow. It’s possibly better than watching paint dry.
But first, have a go at the SafeGroup word puzzle. It is a fun brain teaser and it is educational, and it is easier, so you will have time in the day to do something else as well!
