Absolutely 100% spot -on @Faith-and-Hope - it is like you are in my classroom lol

I think that is why I enjoyed doing the crosswords with you so much. As part of our spelling lessons each day there was always a thesaurus tasks - and it was one of the most 'competitive' parts of the day. The kids would challenge each other to see who could find the most words that meant the same. My part was to (occasionally laugh at them lol) when they tried to pronounce words - that was one of our 'rules' they needed to be able to say the new words and know what they meant. As you can probably image - a 20 minute spelling timeframe would often blow out to the whole morning  Those that finished earlier would line up to challenge each other on pronouncing words that would be on the 'big' board - I have never had so much fun - and the kids too - with spelling lessons ever. Some of the pronunciations of words was priceless and we would all be ROFL