What is faster and easier to read than a crossword puzzle, but still tests word skills? The answer is, a clever puzzle called 7 Little Words®. There are many things to like about this puzzle, but the one most important to all of you is that you can download printable versions FREE for classroom use.
Each puzzle has definitions for seven words that must be unscrambled, along with the number of letters in each word. The fragments of the seven words are randomly arranged on twenty little buttons, two or three letters on each button. The challenge is to put those pieces back together to make the seven words.
This puzzle appears in many places: in newspapers, online, and in apps for Android®, Windows 8®, and iOS® mobile devices. Clicking the buttons inserts the letters into a staging area in the electronic versions. On the printable versions, you try out combinations by jotting with a pencil, and probably should have an eraser handy!
The 7 Little Words app is free, and comes with a number of free puzzles. The Daily Puzzle is also free in all formats. You know I keep this website non-commercial, yet you will see that there are puzzle packs for sale on mobile devices as in-app purchases. Since it’s possible to turn off in-app purchases if you need to, I’ve made a bit of an exception in talking about this puzzle because of the free puzzles you can download.
Download Puzzles For Classroom Use
The producers of 7 Little Words have been incredibly generous in what they have posted for classroom use. First, you can download a daily puzzle and sign up to receive an email link each day to the daily puzzle. Next, you can download older daily puzzles, a month’s worth at a time, going back to January, 2012. As of April, 2017, that’s over 1900 puzzles!
Then it really gets interesting. You can download sets of topical puzzles! When I looked, there were fifteen science puzzles on subjects ranging from astronomy to animal habitats. There were 21 social studies puzzles. And there were puzzles for students learning French and Spanish.
The vocabulary level of the PDF daily puzzles is 8th grade and above, while the topical puzzles vary in level from 3rd through 6th grade. Of course, the answer keys are included with all the downloadable puzzles.
Fun And It Makes You Think
Whether you work 7 Little Words online, on a mobile device, or on paper, it’s are challenging and fun. Besides reinforcing and expanding vocabulary, students must use what they know about word endings and prefixes, and which letter groups are likely to be at the beginning, middle and end of words to solve these puzzles
For students with physical challenges, I feel that only having to deal with words in one direction may be easier than a traditional crossword. Having seven words at a time to unscramble is just about perfect, not so long as to be tedious but long enough to give the mind a good workout.
I’ve given you links below to the For Classroom Use page, the online Daily Puzzle, and the Daily Puzzle in French. I’ve also given you the link to the 7 Little Words home page, since there is a lot more information there, including about a newer puzzle series, 7 Little Words For Kids.
Applications needed:Acrobat Reader, Web browser.
Subject area: Science, History, French, Spoanish, Language Arts.
Level: Grades 3-8, High school.
Online Link-Resources
7 Little Words home page link Click Here. Click the Learn More tab for FAQ on 7 Little Words and related word puzzle games.
Word Puzzles To Download link Click Here. Page with links to download printable versions of 7 Little Words puzzles.
Daily Puzzle in English link Click Here. Daily puzzle to solve online.
Daily Puzzle In French link Click Here. 7 Petit Mots puzzle online.
