To start our homeschool year, I wanted to plan a few first-day fun activities. Emma’s been interested in crossword puzzles lately, so I thought I would make her a first day of school crossword puzzle. But of course a regular old crossword puzzle just wouldn’t do. I wanted a giant one!
I started off by going to the Puzzlemaker website and choosing to make a Criss Cross Puzzle. I created a crossword puzzle using their free service. (Just beware… Every once in a while the final puzzle will say something like 11 out of 12 words placed in puzzle. Just double check that all your words ended up in the puzzle!)
Then we headed to Walmart and bought posterboard. I bought the kind that has a light-colored grid printed on one side. That meant that I didn’t have to use a ruler to get my boxes straight. Then I plotted out the boxes using the printed crossword puzzle as a reference. I used a second sheet of posterboard to write all the clues.
I’m thinking about doing a giant word search puzzle to go along with a novel study or maybe some other type of puzzle to go along with a science unit. I have a feeling that I’ll be buying a lot of posterboard this year.
While the final result was exactly the same puzzle that she would’ve done on paper, it was much more fun when it was HUGE and hanging on the wall. And that was my goal. Mission accomplished!
I’m sharing this post at the Ultimate Homeschool Blog Hop hosted by Beyond the Cover.
That looks like fun! 🙂 I might have to try that with some short sight words for my daughter – she loves activities like this.
You could probably do the same thing with a huge word search for sight words. Enjoy!
This looks like so much fun! My kiddos would love this! I think I even have one that would enjoy making it with me in the first place, lol. Thank you for linking up with the Mom Tested Family Approved homeschool link-up. 🙂
Oh that would be fun to have them help you create one! I’m thinking it would help them dig deeper into a topic to create one of their own too. Great idea!