Puzzle Maker

Discovery have offered this free puzzle making page for ages now. It's pretty great, incredibly easy to use and definitely worth a share here on Edumacatin'.

You can make crosswords, word searches, fallen phrases, cryptograms, mazes and several other types of puzzle on there.

The crossword is a great way to make your basic Q&A worksheet that much more fun. Word searches are great for introducing new sets of vocabulary (especially for spelling tests). The double puzzles add that extra dimension (a hidden code) to your basic list of anagrams. The fallen phrases are great for definitions and are quite challenging.

I often make puzzle pages for reviewing topics and like to combine many puzzles onto one sheet. Add in a few related images and some snazzy titles and it's guaranteed to get the children's attention. Here's an example of a recent one I made. It's an A3 sized review of our current connected learning topic, the digestive system, meant to be completed in pairs.

As well as making lesson specific puzzle sheets using this, I've also found it's worth taking the time to make several extra generic puzzle sheets for those moments where students have finished early or as a reward. Maths squares, number blocks, cryptograms and mazes are perfect for this.