Aboard The Puzzle Depot: Crossword Express for Teachers

Crossword Express for Teachers

Create Crosswords for Classrooms

Our Crossword Express puzzle creator/player program for Windows is a versatile tool that provides a completely automatic way of creating professional quality crosswords.

Teachers: Create vocabulary lesson puzzles in a few minutes.

Puzzling Words and Word Puzzles Understanding any subject matter -- whether it is political science, economics, or mathematics -- demands that we develop a new vocabulary so we can explain ideas within that particular context. Developing a "current events" vocabulary can be done by finding ways to play with the meaning of words. Students' understanding of and interest in key terms can be increased by defining selected words and examining their etymology. Etymology is the study of the history of words and their changing use. For example, a circadian rhythm, explained in a program on light, might seem incomprehensible at first. The phrase is simplified, however, once a student knows that the word circadian comes from the Latin word "circa" meaning "about" and "dia" meaning "day". By knowing the Latin root, students can understand that a circadian rhythm occurs in about a day because it depends on alternating cycles of day and night. Sometimes a word might be interesting to explore because the word is in the midst of redefinition. For example, family comes from the Latin word "familia" meaning "household" and included servants. Over time the common use of this term has shifted. In the 50's "family" was defined as a man and a women and their biological children. In the recent news programs, the meaning of family has become a serious debate. Sponsoring Puzzling Words and Word Puzzles Teacher and students who enjoy playing with language might find this a fun project. Students would watch the program with a notepad and pencil jotting down a few words each week that were of interest. They would ask those students in distant classes on this project to join them in this activity. Then the students would use dictionaries to explore the etymology and history of the words. These words and some notes about them would be added to a Circle glossary. As the glossary develops, the words and meanings could be used by the students participating in this project to create word puzzles such as acrostics, riddles or crossword puzzles. The students might also want to use the background of the word, some of the embedded words to create a word pictures to help make the meaning more memorable. Publishing Puzzling Words and Word Puzzles For this project idea, the sponsoring class may want to publish their section in two parts. One could be the glossary of words with their etymology, and definitions. The second part could be a series of puzzles, word pictures and word games that the students have created using the words in the glossary.

Only Four Simple Steps Required! (See Example)

Choose the grid size.
Pick an existing template or input your own black square pattern.
Start the "Make Crossword" command to create a puzzle.
Select Normal Printout, Clipboard Export or even Solve Puzzles Onscreen.

That's It!

Create Fresh Puzzles In A Few Moments!

Crossword Express is an indispensable tool for the crossword hobbyist and professional as well as those involved with education or training. You'll have completely new puzzles generated in a few moments with literally thousands of puzzles available from the included word and clue dictionaries. New dictionaries are easily created and expansion of the supplied dictionaries is allowed. High quality puzzles are easily created from the included grid templates or user defined layouts. Flexible output options include:

Onscreen Solution
Hard Copy Output
Clipboard Export to DTP and HTML Editing Programs

Download A Free Demo (183 Kb)

The program hardware requirements and features can also be seen here. Most PC's running Windows will support Crossword Express.

Call 1-800-553-4305 To Order With Visa or Mastercard

With our low prices shown below, Crossword Express is both affordable and an incredible value! Select this link for detailed ordering instructions. International callers may dial +1 205-881-4832.

Crossword Express Lite ($19.95): This version is designed for general puzzle construction and onscreen play using the built-in dictionaries. It allows up to 20 user input words to be placed manually in puzzles with auto-backfill of remaining words. Flexible printing and clipboard export options give you complete control of puzzle output. We use this version for the Weekly Puzzle published at this Web site. The cost is only $19.95 for delivery via air mail from Australia to anywhere in the world.
Crossword Express Pro ($39.95) Due Feb. 1996: This version is designed for professional and educational puzzle construction with additional built-in dictionaries. It allows up to 256 special interest words with automatic construction of "sparse" puzzles using only the user specified words. This feature is great for school vocabulary lessons and other special topic word groups. The cost is only $39.95 for delivery via air mail from Australia to anywhere in the world.

Crossword Express Screen Shots

Crossword Express has a comprehensive control center that makes the creation of puzzles very easy. It contains a graphical menu of commands for the major operations supported: