What is it? A hugely powerful and flexible wordsearch generator, which can be used either as a starter activity, or as a tool to generate worksheets, or in an ICT suite for individual student work. It can be used in any subject at any level, offers inbuilt facilities for differentiation and extension work, and it is virtually self-marking... … and most kids love wordsearches... and of course it's free....

You need... A teacher's PC which connects to a projector. A fairly standard set of PC software which includes a Flash player in its Web browser. This software will work in most UK secondary schools, but ask your technical support team BEFORE you spend too much time on it... To produce worksheets, you need to know how to take a screenshot, how to copy-and-paste, and how to crop an image in Paint.

How it Works This software offers a general purpose vocabulary builder and literacy tool ideal for for 5-minute starters. Students spot the words in the grid, then come to the front, and click the words they have spotted. You can have elements of competition (boys v girls, or right-half vs left- half) and vary the level of difficulty in the grid. The game works best if you have 16 or more words to include.

Downloading: 10 Minutes You need to download four files from the TM4T website, here (copy and paste this into your web browsers address bar): management-for-NQTs/tm4t-nqt---starters/tm4t-nqt---land-of-a-100- starters/tm4t-nqt-software-downloads Put all four files in the same folder; name the folder something crazy like Wordsearch. It's best to keep your Wordsearch folders on a memory stick (flash drive) so you can carry it round.

Setting Up: 2 Minutes You should have downloaded three files in addition to this one: one called Example-Words, the other two both called Wordsearch. The first thing you should do is to copy and paste the Example-Words file and create another file - rename this fifth file Words. This is important because you must have a file called Words. The Example-Words file is pre-loaded with some sample words, and is in exactly the correct format so the game works; so: if you ever mess up the format of the Words file, you can just do the copy-rename trick again to make a new Words file. For the game to work, you must have a file called Words, it must be in the same folder as the Wordsearch files, and it must be in the correct format.

Preparation 1: 2 minutes Try the game out by double-clicking on one of the Wordsearch icons, and compare the results with the contents of the Words file (the contents of the Example-Words file are shown below) Mr Bigrush, Topic-Name AQUATICS,aquatics BASKETBALL,basketball GYMNASTICS, gymnastics SHOOTING,shooting TRIATHLON,triathlon This Goes Here These go in the Wordsearch These go in the Clues

Preparation 2: 3-10 minutes You should edit the Words file, replacing Mr Bigrush with your name, Topic-Name with err.. the topic name, and each word pair with a set from your vocabulary list. The game does work with less than 16 words, but it looks a little odd. You should get a student to time-test your wordsearch at Level 1 - this should take around 5 minutes.

Double-click on Wordsearch, then click Start Game. Choose a Level to match the class ability (One = Easy, Two = Medium, Three = Hard). The Wordsearch is displayed, together with a list-of-words. When you find a word, click on the first and last letters to mark it. The corresponding word is then highlighted in the list-of-words. Other buttons (Show Words, Hide Words, New Game) do exactly what you'd expect them to do. If you restart the game with the same Words file, you will get a different Wordsearch, so you can re-use each game repeatedly. Playing the Game: 5-10 minutes (Level 2)

How it Works Part 2 You can of course easily transform your wordsearch into a Worksheet or homework sheet. Just display a Wordsearch on your PC screen, nice and big, then press the screenshot button on your keyboard (usually PrtSc or ScrPt near the top right hand corner). Ask your technical support team if you don't know how to do this. Paste your screen shot into MS- Paint or a similar program, then use Select to copy-and-paste an image of your Wordsearch into an MS-Word document and add text.

How it Works Part 3 You can of course often create a quiz as well as a wordsearch, simply by editing your Words file. For example, instead of making the clues the same as the answers like this: Mr Bigrush, Topic-Name PARIS, paris ROME, rome MADRID, madrid LJUBLJANA, ljubljana … just make the clues different like this: Mr Bigrush, Topic-Name PARIS, paris ROME, rome MADRID, madrid LJUBLJANA, ljubljana How it Works Part 3 You can of course often create a quiz as well as a wordsearch, simply by editing your Words file. For example, instead of making the clues the same as the answers like this: Mr Bigrush, Capitals PARIS, Paris ROME, Rome MADRID, Madrid LJUBLJANA, Ljubljana … just make the clues different like this: Mr Bigrush, Capitals PARIS, France ROME, Italy MADRID, Spain LJUBLJANA, Slovenia

Efficient Working Preparing each Wordsearch can take 5-10 minutes, which means it isn't an efficient activity to develop and prepare during Term-time. The best way to use this tool is to identify before term starts which sets of vocabulary are likely to be valuable. Wherever possible, share this planning with colleagues in your department, and develop different Words-files for each topic - for example: Words-sealife, Words-algebra, Words-literature. When you want to use a particular set of words, just rename your files so the correct one has the magic name: Words. STOP PRESS: Actually, no, I lie. The best and easiest way to use this tool is to get some naughty students to key in all the words for you - creating several Words files - as a sanction....

In emergencies... You can download the software again from e-management-for-NQTs/tm4t-nqt---starters/tm4t-nqt--- land-of-a-100-starters/tm4t-nqt-software-downloads