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Start from a picture Crossword puzzle

Picture-clue crossword

The clues are pictures. For language learners and young readers, with the first letter of every word filled in.

When to use it

A beginner English class at the end of a vocabulary topic, when pupils know the things but not yet the spellings. Young readers practising everyday nouns without clues they can't read yet. Homework for a language class, where the picture stands in for a translation.

What makes it this

Built on the Crossword puzzle generator with these changed. Everything else is the default.

  1. With media
  2. Text next to media

    Adds a line of text to entries that already carry a picture, audio or video.

    In the builder: How it plays › Clues & helpers

  3. Give away the first letter

    In the builder: How it plays › Solving aids

Preview

View only — copy it to play.

Picture clues: ten everyday things

Every clue is a picture. Click a numbered square and the picture appears beside it — type the English word for the thing you can see. The first letter of each word is already there.

10 words

Why the example is built this way

  1. Things a drawing can't get wrong.

    Pick everyday objects nobody could mistake for something else. Mix a few long words, which make the long runs across the grid, with shorter ones full of vowels that cross them.

  2. A line under each picture that never names it.

    Text next to media adds a sentence under the picture, which screen readers also read out. Describe the object without using its name, or the sentence hands over the answer in writing.

  3. No word bank on top.

    With a picture, the first letter and a list of the words, nothing is left to recall. Leave Word bank off and let Give away the first letter be the only scaffold.

Build it yourself

  1. 1 Open the Crossword puzzle builder and fill in the Words & clues tab.
  2. 2 Change the settings under What makes it this. Each one says where it is in the builder.
  3. 3 Share the link with your players, or embed the activity in your own site.

Or skip the building: copy this example and swap in your own content.

More with the Crossword puzzle