Crossword Puzzles

Animal Words

This collection of crossword and word search puzzles are very enjoyable and helpful for young and adult learners alike. Simply, they are made to teach rather than to test, challenging though. These puzzles are designed to serve in various ways that empower vocabulary, enhance reading and spelling train learners to do two-stage language puzzles. Graphics and images colourful and carefully selected.

The collection consists of 7 puzzles that cover more than around fifty animals.

Puzzle One

This puzzle is very simple but learners enjoy it as the images are provided with the names of animals. The learners here go through various mental processes to get to the final stage.

1. Learners identify the image of the animal with the word.
2. Learners read the names of the animals with the help of the teacher/parent, if required.
3. The teacher/parent can ask questions to encourage the learners to speak by asking ‘What is this?’ [ ما هذا؟]. The learner answers for example  ‘This is a rabbit’ [هذا أرنب].
4. This stage is the deconstruction stage which is very important in learning to read and write the Arabic script as it is connective (cursive: the letters are joined, unlike English which can be in print). Thus, the learners look at the word as a whole and then figure out what letters it consists of.
5. The final stage is the construction stage. The learners here reconstruct the word mentally and physically (in writing) as they draw a line across the letters or a circle around them.
   

Puzzle Two

This puzzle is simpler than the first one as it does not involve the same stages of the previous one. However, it is more challenging as it does not include images of the animals but rather  more words. This puzzle is designed mainly to help the learners deconstruct or read the words without the help of an image. This kind of activity makes the learners focus on reading and empowering their photo memory. If they don’t know the animal, it is not a problem; they can be asked to guess what the animal is. If they don’t guess it right, they still can do the puzzle. The teacher/parent can tell the learner what the name of the animal is in their mother tongue. So, learners

1.  look and try to read the word and identify it with an image from memory.
2. In  the deconstruction stage deconstruct the word. The teacher/parent can ask the learner about the number of letters they find in the word which adds more fun.
3. The final stage is the construction stage. The learners here reconstruct the word mentally and physically as the draw a line across the letters or a circle around them.

Puzzle Three

This puzzle is two in one. In other words, it requires two different stages to be done.

• The first stage: the learners have to match the animals with their names.
• The second stage: the learners deconstruct the names in the grid according to the numbers they have got in the first stage.

This puzzle has proved to be the best for learners as it is very challenging in both stages. The matching activity in the first stage provokes the mathematical side of the activity which makes learners forget for a while about the language side of the activity while they are in the middle of it. This makes learning more effective as they think of the language and they don’t know they are do so. In the second stage the learners, have to deal with numbers and directions (cross- down) which also adds more to their enjoyment, especially when they figure out where to put the word. Also, they deconstruct the words and write the letters as separate. This is a very important activity so they can remember that isolated letters in Arabic have different shapes from these when they are connected.

The instructions for this puzzle are very important because some learners might be switched off if they get confused about what to do. Matching the animals to the right numbers is a key stage to do the puzzle properly.

Puzzle Four

This puzzle is similar to puzzle two but with some different animal names.

Puzzle Five

This puzzle is also two in one, but different from puzzle three mainly in the first stage.

• The first stage: learners have to read simple sentences about the animals and complete the sentence with a word from the relevant list. This stage is to carryout an indirect reading activity. the learners will be directed to do the puzzle through this step-stone activity.  After completing the sentences, learners read the sentences to check their answers before they move to the next stage. The numbers of the sentences are the numbers used in the grid.
• The second stage: the learners deconstruct the names in the grid.

Puzzle Six

This is an advanced puzzle where the teacher/parent should assist and guide. This puzzle is not about animal names but rather about the animals and their qualities and features as size and speed and colour.

The learners first read the questions and try to find the key word to complete the answer. The new words are introduced here within context.

After the learners have answered correctly, the teacher/parent can have a short dialogue with the learner by asking the questions given and the learner answers without or with the help of the sheet. No need to put pressure on the learners if they can’t answer without reading from the sheet.

Body language of the teacher/parent can be very helpful here especially with words such as ‘big’ [كبير ], ‘small’ [صغير ], ‘fast’ [سريع ].

Now the learners have completed the first part of the puzzle, they can move to find the words in the grid.

Puzzle Seven

This is a revision and fun puzzle. You can say it is a wrap up puzzle where all the animal names are given with the English equivalents. The learners will have some letters left uncrossed in the grid. They have to put these letters to gather to find the hidden word which is described in English.

This collection can be downloaded for a donation (£1.00 to £3.00) . Choose the amount you would like to pay for this collection. Once it is downloaded teachers/parents can print as many copies as they want. 

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