Here is a fun, engaging and interactive lesson plan resource to support students during Black History Month. BHM crosspatch puzzle activates a variety of problem solving strategies (see below), while engaging students' brains. Most students are familiar with crossword puzzles. This crosspatch puzzle is similar except for: 1) clues are exclusively word clues, and 2) word clues are not organized by number of letters. To solve the puzzle students need to fill-in-the-blanks with the correct word clues.
Problem solving strategies:
- engage the brain: first REVIEW the list of words
- organize list of information: ORGANIZE word clues by number of letters
- organize word information: IDENTIFY a word with the least number letters, or most number of letters, or a word with a unique number of letters (e,g, 4 letters-love)
- 1:1 correspondence: FILL-IN-THE-BLANKS with any unique words
- eliminate word choices: TRACK PROGRESS by checking off words as the blank squares are filled
- use prior knowledge of crossword puzzles: FILL-IN-THE-BLANKS with remaining word clues that match letter intersection points
- use trial and error: continue to FILL-IN-THE-BLANKS that show no letter clues until the puzzle is complete
Download the free puzzle to print and/or copy the file to your computer to complete is using Google Apps version.
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