Challenging to challenge!

 At Vidyashram we make the process of learning fun and that too without compromising the learning objectives. In the past week I used crossword puzzles as fun and engaging tool for revising the geography chapters with class 6th,7th and 8th.

The processes of solving crossword puzzle gets the child to carefully read the hints and makes them look up for word meaning to completely understand the hint, all this effort is put to reach to the reword! the missing word. A challenge they face sometimes is to spell the word correctly and hence a deliberate effort to recheck the spellings is put, since a wrong spelling could lead them to a dead end with next connected word in the puzzle.

Solving a crossword puzzle related to the ongoing chapter was fun and children enjoyed it, but taking up a challenge is not challenging enough! So we decided to create our own crossword puzzles and put it up as a challenge to others. Since challenging someone is more fun!

In the process of making a difficult crossword puzzle children did not just stick to the book but went back to other reading materials and class notes that were provided to them.

Knowing the correct answer is one of indicators of the fact that the child has an understanding of the topic being covered but formulating clever (intelligent) questions from the topic indicates and provides a broader learning opportunity i.e clarity of the concept as well as ability to write it with clarity. Formulating the hints for the crossword puzzles gave the children the opportunity to play with words and come out with interesting and challenging hints.

To sum it up, the puzzle making activity was as engaging as it could be, keeping the children busy with writing work is a challenge and it becomes easy when integrated games and puzzles.

It was great sharing with you all about my class room update here. Will come back with more soon!

Thank you!

Ritesh

(English and Social Studies teacher, classes 6-10)