Every teacher keeps a drawer of these. This is what goes in it, ordered by how much time you have to fill.
Five minutes
1. Small word search, this week's vocabulary
A 10×10 with six words. Long enough to settle a room, short enough that everyone finishes — which matters more at five minutes than at twenty, because an unfinished five-minute task is just an interruption.
2. Missing letters, first letter given
Eight words, one line each. Fast to mark from the front by asking for answers aloud.
3. One cryptogram on the board
Solved as a class with hands up. Nobody needs paper, and it works with any age from about nine upward.
Fifteen minutes
4. Word search in pairs, one sheet
One puzzle between two, one pencil. They have to talk, and the talking is in the vocabulary you are trying to embed.
5. Maze, sized to the age
Silent, absorbing, and needs no reading at all — which makes it the reliable choice for a mixed-ability group or when half the class is new to the language.
6. Crossword from the week's lesson
The only one on this list that tests understanding rather than recognition, because the clue carries the meaning. Worth the extra preparation.
7. Build-your-own
Students give you the word list, you generate the puzzle in front of them, and they solve what they wrote. Choosing the words is more thinking than solving is.
A whole lesson
8. Puzzle stations
Four tables, four puzzle types, groups rotate every ten minutes. Covers the whole hour and the variety keeps it from going flat.
9. Design a puzzle for another class
Groups make a puzzle aimed at a younger year, then it actually gets sent. Having a real audience changes the standard of the work considerably.
10. Puzzle book project
Each student contributes one puzzle, you compile them, and every child takes home a copy of a book their class made. Works from about age seven and gets remembered.
What to keep in the drawer
Printed in advance, not generated on the day — the day you need these is the day the printer is jammed:
- Ten small word searches on general themes, class set
- Ten mazes at two difficulties, for the language-independent case
- A stack of blank grids for the make-your-own version
- One answer key per puzzle, kept separately
One warning from experience: keep the answer keys somewhere the class cannot reach. A filler activity with the answers available is not a filler activity, it is a copying exercise with a very quiet room.
