{"id":3329,"date":"2020-01-23T07:30:29","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T12:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teachersfirst.com\/blog\/?p=3329"},"modified":"2020-01-22T11:53:21","modified_gmt":"2020-01-22T16:53:21","slug":"lets-talk-about-puzzles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/2020\/01\/lets-talk-about-puzzles\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Talk About: Puzzles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Here in the United States, National Puzzle Day is celebrated on January 29th.\u00a0 It is the perfect time to inject some levity into the K12 day. If you have not used puzzles in your lessons before, you are in luck!\u00a0 We\u2019re about to explore why you should.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, solving puzzles can help students in a number of ways.\u00a0 It provides opportunities to work on communication, critical thinking\/problem solving, creativity, and character education.\u00a0 When used as a group exercise, you can include collaboration. So really using puzzles in the classroom can help your students with many components of <\/span>Deep Learning or The 6 C\u2019s<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most versatile puzzles to use is the jigsaw puzzle. Even in early childhood, your students can use jigsaw puzzles as a communication prompt.\u00a0 As they work on the puzzle, students can be prompted to stop and talk about what they see and make predictions about the image (make sure to hide the box top). You can ask them to articulate the steps they want to take to solve the problem.\u00a0 Solving the \u201cright size<\/em>\u201d jigsaw puzzle may take some patience and perseverance, so be prepared to work with your students on these <\/span>social-emotional skills<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Completed puzzles can be used as writing prompts and conversation starters.\u00a0 Don\u2019t have content area jigsaw puzzles for your students to work on? Not a problem.\u00a0 Use <\/span>Jigsaw Planet<\/span><\/a> (<\/span>reviewed here<\/span><\/a>) and create one using any image.\u00a0 Remember to observe <\/span>copyright<\/span><\/a>!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another type of puzzle that can be used across all content areas is the <\/span>escape room<\/span><\/a> or breakout. These puzzles have moved from actual boxes with locks to online versions.\u00a0 In fact, here at TeachersFirst, we did an OK2Ask workshop last year on how to create them.\u00a0 <\/span>You can watch the archive here<\/span><\/a>. One way to make a free escape room puzzle is by using <\/span>Room Escape Maker<\/span><\/a> (<\/span>reviewed here<\/span><\/a>).\u00a0 Creating your own escape room is a great way to weave content area information into the puzzle.\u00a0 That way, students can be discussing the terms and concepts they are learning as they manipulate that information to solve the puzzle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Math, problem solving, and critical thinking blend together well.\u00a0 Even if you don\u2019t teach math, you can use \u201cmath type\u201d puzzles to engage your students.\u00a0 No matter the class, math puzzles can be used to practice communication, creativity, character education, and even collaboration.\u00a0 Math puzzles make great instructional sets as well. A few great sites to try include: <\/span>Which One Doesn\u2019t Belong<\/span><\/a> (<\/span>reviewed here<\/span><\/a>), <\/span>Shikaku Madness<\/span><\/a> (<\/span>reviewed here<\/span><\/a>), and <\/span>4 Numbers Game<\/span><\/a> (<\/span>reviewed here<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

How will you use puzzles in your classroom on National Puzzle Day?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here in the United States, National Puzzle Day is celebrated on January 29th.\u00a0 It is the perfect time to inject some levity into the K12 day. If you have not used puzzles in your lessons before, you are in luck!\u00a0 We\u2019re about to explore why you should. First, solving puzzles can help students in a … read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[205,204],"class_list":["post-3329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lets-talk-about","tag-deep-learning","tag-puzzles"],"modified_by":"Karen Streeter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3329"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3337,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3329\/revisions\/3337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}