The World News Crossword - May 20th, 2018

The World News Crossword - May 20th, 2018 is a teaching and learning activity based on the events of last week’s news.

There is a crossword on last week’s news events, there are two background/explainer search and cloze puzzles (The Venezuela crisis and Jerusalem), and there is another crossword based on a country mentioned in the news crossword (this week it’s Comoros).

What happened in last week’s news? India inaugurated a hydro-electric dam that prompted protests from Pakistan because it affects water flowing into the Indus River. Ebola cases were reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and 4000 vaccine doses arrived in Kinshasa. Comoros’ ex-president was arrested on charges relating to selling citizenship. Malaysia’s ex-PM’s residence was raided of bags of cash and jewelry. A mountain lion killed a mountain biker in the US. Hawaii’s volcano erupted, prompting more evacuations. Australia and the US were the only countries to vote against a UN investigation into the Israeli killings of Palestinians in Gaza.

The two background/explainer puzzles aim to teach more about ongoing news stories. This week there is an explanation of why Jerusalem is central to the Middle East troubles. There is also an explanation of Venezuela’s economic and human crisis.

These puzzles are excellent for driving students’ research skills. When students work in small groups they learn cooperation and team work. They help with concentration and, of course, handwriting.

But best of all, these puzzles generate real-world discussions. The students leave the less asking questions like, ‘Why would North Korea even want nuclear weapons and why does the US care?’ ‘Why does China want a military base in the South China Sea?’ ‘Why have some UK supermarkets added a ‘plastic-free’ label on some products?’