Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

I’ve already posted a list of sites where both teachers and students can make more sophisticated online games that would be useful for language development — The Best Websites For Creating Online Learning Games.

Today, I’d like to create another “The Best…” list, this time focusing on more simple and “old-fashioned” word games like crossword puzzles and hangman. I’ll share places where you can create these games for free and have them hosted online so anyone can play them at anytime and will also list sites that allow you to easily create the games, but for printing out hard copies only.

Either way, the only way I think these activities provide occasional useful learning opportunities is when students create the games themselves.  Then, they can share them among their peers.  A speed competition can be a lot of fun. Personally, though, I don’t think anything beats a game of hangman on a classroom whiteboard with students divided into groups. In fact, you might find my article Games Students Play useful. In it, I share my (and my students) favorite classroom learning games.

Here are my choices for The Best Sites For Making Crossword Puzzles & Hangman Games:

Just Crosswords is an easy way to create an online crossword puzzle. No registration is required — just plug in the words and clues and the site hosts it for you.

Linguaspectrum is pretty easy, too, plus it lets you make hangman games, too. The only slight negative is that you have to register, but it’s quite fast and easy to do.

At APTE, you can create crosswords, as well as a number of other word games. One advantage is that they can then either be played online or printed out.  Here, too, you have to register.

You can create online hangman games (and do a lot more) at My Language Exchange. Registration (again, free and easy) is required).

Word Duck has a cute version of online hangman for many user-created topics. Once you register for free you can also create a game using your own words.

Study Stack lets you easily create (after your register) flashcards, hangman games, word searches, and many more activities.

Play Kids Games is the latest addition to this list. Teachers can use their own content for a variety of games, including Hangman.

With the Flash Hangman Challenge, you can easily write a phrase, email it to a friend, and it will automatically be turned into a Hangman game that can also be posted on a teacher/student website or blog. No registration is required.

There are several sites that allow you to create crossword puzzles you can print-out for free. They include EdHelper and Puzzle-Maker.

The well-known Puzzlemaker from Discovery Education lets you make a lot of other word games for print-out, but not crossword puzzles.

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