ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST
1
Instructions
2
Form your students into groups, 3-5 works well, and share this Sheet with them
3
Brainstorm all the words that relate to a topic and put them in the column marked 'All Words'. Once you have about a dozen words, you can start assembling your crossword.
4
Have someone choose a starting word. Write that word at the top of the 'Words in Use' column. (It'll have a dark brown background)
5
Go to the 'Crossword' Sheet and place the word, 1 letter per cell, starting somewhere in the middle. Place the word either horizontally or vertically
6
Highlight the cells of that word and use the 'fill colour' tool to make it the same colour as the 'Clues' Worksheet (The first word should have a dark brown background)
7
Other members then look at the existing crossword and find a spot to place a new word. Just like a real crossword, their word must somehow use a letter(s) from a word already placed
8
Once they place their word, ensure the word on the 'Crossword' worksheet and the Word/Clue cells in the 'Clues' Worksheet are highlighted the same colour
9
Keep going until you run out of room or run out of words. There are 10 distinct colours, so a maximum of 10 words works well. Any more than that and you have to get into different shades of colour
10
Go back to the 'Clues' worksheet and now write clues for each of the words that have been used. Discuss within the group (possibly using the comments functionality) how to make the clues 'better'
11
The Clues will be automatically copied onto the 'Crossword' worksheet with the correct colours
12
Delete the 'All Words' and 'Words in Use' columns (you can go back through the revisions to find the answers if necessary)
13
Go back to the 'Crossword' Worksheet and highlight the whole worksheet
14
Press the Delete button. All the letters will disappear but the colours will stay, showing you where the words need to go
15
Share the Sheet with another group for them to solve
16
Have fun! (If you use it in class, please drop me an email and let me know how the activity went - damien@damienkee.com)
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98