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How to Make Your Own Puzzle for Free

The Web abounds with tools for making puzzles of all kinds, including word and picture puzzles. You can find free software for making such puzzles, including programs that don&'t require downloading, but work right from your browser. Although you can find some puzzles by searching for "puzzle" in search engines, you might find better puzzles by searching established organizations whose branches are likely to have some connection with games, entertainment or education. These organizations include print magazines that teach scientific concepts to kids; major web search engine companies; and branches of the federal government whose work involves the arts and education.

Instructions

Discovery Education
- 1
  Open your browser and surf to Discovery Education&'s Puzzlemaker page. Click the "Word Search" link to begin making a Word Search puzzle.
- 2
  Type the title for your word search puzzle in the text box under the "Step 1" heading, then set the size of the puzzle (number of letters across and down) in the boxes under "Step 2."
- 3
  Select one of the puzzle-generation options under the "Step 3" heading. Each option affect your puzzle&'s level of difficulty.
- 4
  Choose an output format (e.g., html, plain text) under "Step 4," then enter a list of comma-separated words--or one word per line followed by a hard return--in the box under "Step 5."
- 5
  Click the "Create my Puzzle" button, then print out or save the results.
Jigsaw Planet
- 6
  Surf to the Jigsaw Planet site.
- 7
  Click the "Browse" button, then select a photo from your hard drive.
- 8
  Click "Advanced Options" below the "Browse" button to choose the difficulty level of your puzzle.
- 9
  Choose the shape of your puzzle pieces by clicking an option under the "Shape" heading.
- 10
  Type a name for your puzzle in the "Name" box, then click the "Create" button.
- 11
  Click and drag pieces toward each other to try to recreate the original image. You&'ll know for sure if two pieces fit together when you hear a clicking sound and the pieces join together.
Teacher&'s Corner
- 12
  Navigate to the Teacher&'s Corner site.
- 13
  Enter a title for your puzzle in the "Title" box. If you like, you can relate your title to a theme. For example, if you want to create a crossword puzzle related to architecture, enter "Gothic Cathedrals" or "Parts of Ancient Greek Temples" as your title.
- 14
  Enter a list of words under the "Word" column. Choose words that relate to the theme you chose in Step 3. For the "Gothic Cathedral" example, you might choose parts of a Gothic cathedral, e.g., "lancet," "triforium," "clerestory."
- 15
  Type a clear question in each row of the "Clue" column wherein the answer is the word you entered in the "Word" column. For the Gothic cathedral example, your question for "lancet" might be "What&'s the name of the tall windows with pointed arches?"
- 16
  Press the "Make Crossword Puzzle" button at the bottom of the page to create your puzzle. Print out or save the results.

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