Oliver's puzzles build both spelling and vocabulary skills while providing many problem solving opportunities. Students can work with either word definitions or sentence context clues.
To assist beginning puzzle solvers, the teacher can have Oliver provide the first one, two, or three letters of each word at the start of the puzzle. Oliver can provide additional letters upon request. Access to letter hints can be restricted.
Oliver keeps score, and high scores are listed on Oliver;s Whoo;s Whoo in Crosswords chart. Oliver's puzzles use words that are useful to students in intermediate grades.
- 30 general vocabulary puzzles
- 20 theme puzzles (math, plants, states, weather, reptiles, etc.)
- Whoo's Whoo top scores chart
Oliver's Crosswords builds student vocabularies, exercises spelling skills, and encourages strategic thinking. Students may work alone or with partners. A crossword puzzle grid surrounds Oliver on the screen. Definitions appear at the bottom of the screen as the student moves through the grid with arrow keys or the space bar. Letter keys are used to type words on the grid, and Oliver signals whether answers are right or wrong. Several kinds of clues are available for stumped students to use (if the teacher allows it). A score is accumulated as the puzzle is completed; and, the score is influenced by the amount of help the player has requested. High scores are listed on the Whoo's Whoo in Crosswords chart.
By using program options, the teacher controls whether sentence context clues, word definitions, or both are available to the student. The program can be set to put the first one, two, or three letters of each word into the puzzle when the grid is printed on the screen. Also, the teacher can limit the number of letter clues a child can use while at work. These program options allow significant adjustment to the challenge of the puzzle-solving task in order to meet student needs.
Oliver's Crosswords provides three kinds of printout worksheets to the teacher who wishes to give students further exposure to the vocabulary contained in each puzzle. These are 1) fill-in-the-blank sentences, 2) fill-in-the-blank sentences with a word list, and 3) word and definition matching.
Students enjoy feelings of accomplishment when solving Oliver's puzzles. Beginners sometimes think the puzzles are too hard; but, with unlimited use of clues, all answers are revealed. Without clues, the puzzles can provide satisfying challenges to high achievers.
Multimedia CD-ROM for Windows and Mac.
Network/Site License Versions also Available
(Pentium machines and Power Macs or above recommended.)
