African Kingdoms word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

African Kingdoms word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

I made this African kingdoms puzzle set for my 4th graders during our world history unit. The kids had heard of Egypt but had no idea about powerful kingdoms like Ghana, Mali, or Great Zimbabwe. So I put together a word search, a word scramble, and a crossword using words like Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Zimbabwe, kingdom, king, Mansa Musa, gold, salt, trade, caravan, desert, Timbuktu, scholar, and wealth. Nothing fancy — just puzzles to help the names and facts finally stick.

The PDF is four pages. Three puzzles plus one answer key page. The word search works well for quiet time after recess. The scramble gets them talking because they argue about whether Mansa Musa was the richest person in history. The crossword I use for partners. I added a couple simple gold nugget and salt block drawings but nothing too busy.

Works for 4th through 5th grade. Print and go. Sometimes I have early finishers write one fact about Timbuktu on the back. The kids actually ask for these now.