By: Rachel Mork
If you want to make a crossword puzzle, you'll need to identify your objective before you start. Crossword puzzles make excellent educational games, since they can help kids memorize answers to questions and think through what answers could possibly fit in the slots. The key to a good crossword puzzle is developing questions and answers that are tricky, forcing the person doing the puzzle to have to think about several possible answers before choosing one.
Follow these simple steps to make an educational crossword puzzle:
- Identify the questions and answers you want your child to learn. Write out these questions and answers. Do not number the questions and answers yet.
- Look for letters in the answers that will intersect. You'll need at least one letter in each answer to correspond with at least one letter in another answer. For example, the words "water" and "cycle" both have the letter "e". Longer words that have multiple intersecting letters will make your crossword puzzle even easier to create. For example, the words "condensation" and "evaporation" have several letters that can intersect, affording plenty of options. Look for words with lots of vowels. This makes laying out the puzzle much easier.
- Create a grid. This grid needs to consist of squares of equal size, each big enough to fit a letter. You can print out a grid from your computer, or look for graph paper with cells large enough for the letters.
- Lay out the answers in the grid. Use vertical and horizontal patterns, and make sure some of the letters intersect. If you end up with an answer or two that will not neatly intersect with another word, you'll have to add questions with answers that conveniently intersect, to complete the puzzle. Don't get too hung up on the design. Those Sunday puzzles in the New York Times are built by people with years of experience laying out words. It's actually quite tricky to get everything to line up, so start simple.
- Number the questions and answers. Use both Across and Down in the labels. The top-left cell in the grid will always be number one. Number two is the next grid cell that begins a word.
- Shade in the extra squares on the grid. Make it easier for the person completing the puzzle by coloring in the squares that will not contain an answer.
- Provide the answers. You can put them upside down at the bottom of the page. If you're creating a crossword puzzle as a study aid for a child, print them on a separate page and share them with your child when she's done.
- Have fun. Crossword puzzles prove that educational games can be both fun and challenging.
