Grade 7 World Cultures word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

Grade 7 World Cultures word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

I made this world cultures puzzle set for my 7th graders during our geography and social studies unit. The kids knew a little about different countries, but they had no idea what words like cultural diffusion, ethnocentric, or standard of living meant when we started comparing how people live around the world . They also kept mixing up the different types of economies and governments. So I put together a word search, a word scramble, and a crossword using words like culture, cultural diffusion, cultural trait, society, social structure, government, democracy, monarchy, dictatorship, economy, market economy, command economy, traditional economy, standard of living, ethnicity, diversity, urbanization, and globalization . I also threw in a few like "indigenous" and "ethnocentric" because they kept coming up in our class discussions .

The PDF is four pages. Three puzzles plus one answer key page. The word search works well for quiet time after recess or independent practice. The scramble gets them talking because they argue about the spelling of "ethnocentric" (it's a tricky one) or whether a command economy and a market economy are the same thing (they're not—they always have opinions about it) . The crossword I use for partners or as a review, and I usually have a list of vocabulary definitions nearby for the kids who need the visual support to see the concepts.

Works for 6th through 7th grade. Print and go. Sometimes I have early finishers write one example of cultural diffusion they've seen in their own lives on the back. The kids actually ask for these now.