Puzzle, Lesson Four

Week 4, Puzzlemaker
Crystal DeVore

This lesson is for beginner ESL students, elementary level (4th-6th grade). The goal of this lesson is to review vocabulary for ‘summer.’ The previous lessons have used pictures to accompany the lessons and new words.
Click here for the puzzle:
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dw4bws8_28f4k9nbnq

The lesson:
Good morning everyone! We have been working hard to learn about summer. Today we are going to play a game with our summer words. I have laid out all of the pictures for our summer words. We are going to pick one picture and say the word out loud. I’ll show you. (Teacher picks up ‘boat’ picture and says, “I have a boat.”) I would like everyone to pick up one card. (Students all follow; depending on class size you may have students do more than one picture). Please put the pictures back on the table. Now, we are going to find the words in a word puzzle! Each of you has a word puzzle, this is called a word search because we are searching, or looking, for the words. Our job today is to find the word from the bottom of the page in all of the letters in the puzzle. I will show you the first one. Please touch the word ‘weather’. (I’ve colored it in red to show you for the purpose of the lesson). Now, go up into the puzzle on the bottom line. Go to the right side where you have the letter C. Count nine letters to the left to another letter C. From this C count up six letters to the letter W. If you go straight up you will see these letters: W,E,A,T,H,E,R. This spells ‘weather.’ Circle the word ‘weather.’ Very good (teacher is circling the class to ensure all are understanding the directions). Now, in your list of words, you can cross off ‘weather.’ After you’ve crossed off weather, come and pick up the ‘weather’ picture. That way you remember what the word is. After that you get to find the other words, go for it! Have a good time.
**Modification: Students can do the lesson by creating their own crossword puzzle using puzzlemaker; they can take a list of current vocabulary words and do into the site to make their own puzzle.

This word search meets the needs of the lesson as it is a review lesson and the intention is to have fun while reviewing the words.
Why is this topic, information or content appropriate for the lesson you plan to create (e.g., level of authenticity, relevance to target language, register, accuracy, interest level, and motivation)? The topic is appropriate as is covers the needed review and, as it is a game format, it has high motivation while employing the correct accuracy and target language.
What handouts or directions will you provide students to focus learning and adapt this resource for your instructional purposes? The handouts are the word search and the pictures of the vocabulary words. The directions use both in order to better demonstrate the activity.

What are the potential problems, either language based or technical, that you may need to troubleshoot or prepare for? I will not need to worry about technological problems after I’ve printed out the puzzle. One concern is the actual ability to do the puzzle; it may be daunting or overwhelming for some students to find words that are spelled upwards or backwards. *One bonus with puzzlemaker is you can adjust the amount of words and letters in the puzzle so modifications can be made for a future puzzle.