How to Make an Easter Crossword Puzzle or Wordsearch for Kids

If you want to pass the time with the kids this Easter, and you don’t have time for a party or Easter egg hunt event, you might be interested in trying them on a crossword puzzle or wordsearch. You could use a ready made puzzle, but personally I like to put my own together. That said, it takes me ages to work out the clues, or even find the words, if I have to do it out of my own head. Let me tell you what I do to speed things up a little.

There is a search engine on the web called Google. Okay, I’m messing with you, of course you know all about Google. But do you know about the wonder wheel?

If you put a search term into Google, and hit search, you come up with a load of answers. Last year Google introduced an idea which would help you to track down a word or phrase if you couldn’t quite work out what you want to search for.

If you are familiar with the idea of mindmapping then you will find the wonderwheel pretty intuitive to use. Once you get your search result list, click the little plus symbol towards the top left of your browser. That will open some options on the left hand side, and around half the way down is a little option called ‘wonder wheel.’ Click that.

You come up now with what looks like a very simple mindmap – a central idea and with 8 ideas coming off of it. Click one of those ideas and it immediately becomes a new central idea, with another 5 options (you can click on the larger link take you back where you were.)

So how exactly can you use this to generate your wordsearch ideas or crossword puzzle?

Start with a central idea. Here’s some: Easter, chick, lamb, flower, spring, Jesus, rabbit. Put just one word into the search engine, and see what pops up on your wheel. There is no way really of recording your searches by copying and pasting, so you need to write down the ideas that are good. Don’t forget that it’s easy to go back up a level though, so if you run into a dead end you can retrace your steps.

And then keep searching! Follow lines ideas and thoughts.

Once I have got 10 words (for a crossword) or 20 words (for a wordsearch) then I move to the clues. Wordsearches are easy. You can use the web to find a wordsearch compiler, add in your words, and then hit build.

Crosswords are a bit more complicated. You need some clues. What I do is to search the web for the list of words that I have come up with, then I look for definitions.  Using Wikipedia is one of the best places, as is the free dictionary. For kids crosswords the puzzles should be obvious, with simple answers. So if the answer is ‘grass’ then ‘green and grows in fields’ isn’t too easy! If you are worried that the clue is too easy then remember it is because you already know the answer! Keep clues down to no more than 5 words in the sentence, and don't be cryptic.

Once you have your list, find a crossword compiler as you did for the wordsearch.

Finally we're going to jazz it up a bit. Get a simple piece of clipart – if you don’t have it already on your computer then take a look online. Then using a simple piece of software, even Microsoft word will do, overlay the grid for the cross work on top of the picture. Far more interesting and gives the kids something to colour too.   Don't forget to include the clues to the crossword on the same piece of paper.  You might also want to have the answer sheet knocking around too!

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