Make Your Own Crossword Puzzles – Free!

Crossword puzzles are a great brain teaser. You can find them at all skill levels and kids enjoy them too. You can tell a real “crossword puzzle pro” when you see someone doing a puzzle using a pen!

There are some great websites that offer free crossword puzzle makers where you can make customized puzzles. Create puzzles for your children out of this week’s spelling or vocabulary words. Create puzzles for your children based on what they are doing in history or science class. Or create puzzles using topics that your family enjoys – such as a vacation or movies or even a little family history. Soon you will find even those who normally do not do crossword puzzles will be reaching for a pencil to have a try at your latest puzzle!

When using one of the crossword puzzle makers it is helpful if you think of words and the clues ahead of time. If you are giving your puzzles a topic – such as Star Wars – make a list of all the words from Star Wars that you would like to include, and then think of the clues. When thinking of your clues remember to consider your audience. Are you writing this puzzle for children? For teens? For adults who have never done crossword puzzles? Or for adults who do lots of puzzles? As you can see, each audience would require a much different type of clue to help find that word.

It is also helpful to think of about twenty percent more words than you will actually be using. This is because the crossword puzzle maker typically drops some of your words while making the puzzle. Remember that a crossword puzzle is made by words attaching to each other by a letter, sometimes in the middle of a word or at the beginning or at the end of a word. To make a great puzzle shape the puzzle maker will need to remove some of your words.

Once you have completed creating your puzzle simply print it off of your computer. It can be fun to print it on colored paper to make it look pretty.

Here are three websites that offer crossword puzzle makers for you!

Ed Helper (http://www.edhelper.com/crossword_free.htm)
At this website you can make crossword puzzles (and other types of puzzles). Fill in your words and your clues and the puzzle maker will create your puzzle for you.

Instant Online Crossword Puzzle Maker (http://www.varietygames.com/CW/)
Simply fill in your words and your clues and give your crossword puzzle a title if you wish and let the puzzle maker create your puzzle. It will be ready to print in an instant!

Eclipse Crossword (http://www.greeneclipsesoftware.com/eclipsecrossword/index.html) This website is a little different because it offers free software that you can download to make puzzles. The puzzles can be interactive to be used on the computer or even at a website, or you can print them on paper.