At the beginning of each school year I give my students a set of words they need to learn how to spell if they want to be successful in Louisiana history. The words include ones like Louisiana, bayou, Atchafalaya, Natchitoches, Voodoo, boudin, Ouachita, Baton Rouge, LaSalle, Napoleon, etc. Instead of writing the words a kazillion times I have them create a Criss-Cross of the words. The only restrictions on the puzzle is that all words must cross twice. Each "hanger" or word crossed only once will lower their grade. It sounds hard to do but there is a simple trick to it. Find four words that cross each other twice such as:

Once done, each word of those four is crossed twice. Now find a second four that do the same thing. Once completed, tie those together with a simple one-word-to-the-next.

The kids will write the words more times than the 5-20 that you would have assigned plus the will actually learn them.

Criss-Cross word doc