Famous Architects word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

Famous Architects word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

I made this famous architects puzzle set for my 3rd and 4th graders during our art and design unit. The kids could name a couple buildings but had no idea who designed them or what words like architect, design, or blueprint meant when I tried to explain the profession. So I put together a word search, a word scramble, and a crossword using names like Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Le Corbusier, I. M. Pei, Antoni Gaudí, Louis Sullivan, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Eero Saarinen, Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, Oscar Niemeyer, Andrea Palladio, and Filippo Brunelleschi. I also included Walter Gropius and Rem Koolhaas because they always come up in discussions about modern design. Nothing fancy — just puzzles to help the names and their famous buildings finally stick.

The PDF is four pages. Three puzzles plus one answer key page. The word search works well for quiet time after recess or during indoor recess. The scramble gets them talking because they argue about how to spell "Le Corbusier" or whether "Gaudí" has an accent mark (it does, but I left it off to keep it simple). The crossword I use for partners or as a review after a lesson. I added a couple simple building outline, blueprint, and pencil drawings but nothing too busy.

Works for 3rd through 5th grade. Print and go. Sometimes I have early finishers pick one architect from the puzzles and write one fact about them—like what building they designed or where they were from—on the back. The kids actually ask for these now.