Biblical Teaching with Crosswords and Puzzles

How do you study?   What are the best methods?  How do you study the Word?

I have studied using many different methods.  Some of them are:

• Reading
• Classroom
• Audios
• Videos
• Outlining
• Note taking
• Memorizing

Some work better for some than others.   One way I have realized that I learn well is from working Crossword Puzzles and Games.

Crossword Puzzles

I know some people really don’t like them, but perhaps they were approaching them incorrectly.   Were they doing the puzzle to relax and the puzzle was too hard and it made them more stressed?  You really can learn a lot from working them.

I love crosswords.  I grew up with a mother who always had to do the Sunday Crossword.  She would say, ‘Don’t throw out the page in the Sunday paper with the ‘big’ crossword in it, I still want to work that one!’

For Mom it was a challenge and she loved challenges.   Well, I noticed that she really learned a lot from working those puzzles.  She was always teaching us a new word she had learned.  Those puzzles were expanding her vocabulary and knowledge.  So I started working them too as an elementary school kid.  I would buy puzzle books with my allowance.

My Mom, my Mother-in-law and Father-in-law all worked crosswords.  They had special Crossword Dictionaries to help them solve some of the harder puzzles.  That was something they enjoyed and also an interest they shared.

History of Crossword Puzzles

Do you ever think ‘who created that’ or ‘when was that first used’.   We have such a great tool today.  When we are wondering about something we just Google it!

One article I found says that the first ‘word-cross’ in the United States was published by the New York World in 1913, although similar puzzles have been around in different forms since Egyptian times! They were aimed mostly at a juvenile audience and did not become a craze for adults until Simon and Schuster printed the first book of them in the US in the 1920’s, when they took on the familiar name ‘crosswords’.  Today most daily newspapers include a crossword puzzle as well as do many magazines.  https://www.vocabulary.co.il/2007/09/teaching-with-crossword-puzzles/

Did you know there is even a National Crossword Puzzle Day?

Teaching with Crosswords

Many teachers today use Crosswords to help their students learn.  When I Google ‘Using Crosswords in Teaching’ I get ‘about 775,000’ results!

Crosswords are being used to help students in various subject areas:

• English language arts
• Mathematics
• Science
• History
• Social Studies
• ELL/ESL

The process of filling in a crossword puzzle encourages learning, memorizing, creativity, and more.

Using Crossword Puzzles to Teach the Bible

I have used Bible Crossword to enhance my own learning of the Bible for a number of years.  I like Word Searches as well.

Recently I was preparing to facilitate at our Bible Study class Ladies Brunch on a lesson from Marian Jordan Ellis’ book STAND.   I had recently just completed all the puzzles in a Bible Crossword Book and I was thinking I would like a new way to help the ladies learn from the Chapter I was facilitating and I decided I want to create a Crossword Puzzle on this lesson.

I found a tool online and got to work.  I created a puzzle using clues from the Chapter in the book and the ladies loved it!   Just creating the puzzle reinforced what I had learned from the chapter which of course was also referencing Bible Scriptures as well as Marian’s teaching of the Scripture and the lessons learned.

I facilitated another lesson recently and did the same.

My new passion is teaching the Word using Crossword Puzzles!

God has laid it on my heart to share the Crossword puzzles I create with others, therefore I have posted a few free ones on our site under Freebies and Fun Christian Stuff.

One eBook of Biblical Crosswords  I am in the process of completing is entitled Lessons learned from STAND.  It contains the 11 crossword puzzles developed from my study of STAND by Marian Jordan Ellis.   Please fill out the form below and furnish your email address and the eBook will be emailed to you for free.  You may also find a couple of Free puzzles from Lessons learned from STAND here.

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