A Fall Tree From Old Puzzle Pieces

 

A Fall Tree made from glued PUZZLE PIECES! Great idea for a puzzle missing some pieces, or to recycle an old puzzle.

FREE Simple Easter Egg Puzzles for Number Sense

 

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Snowman Counting Puzzles Freebie

 

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Free Mitten Blend Puzzles

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Make It Challenging

In one of my math stations, I have each group of students put together a giant floor puzzle. But what do you do when a particularly bright group puts the puzzle together in record time, and you still have a few more minutes left on the clock?

The kids came up with their own solution! They took the puzzle apart, turned it upside-down so they couldn't see the colorful side, mixed up the pieces, then attempted to put it back together!

Talk about challenging! But they loved it!

100s Chart Puzzles

Getting ready for the 100th Day of School, I wanted to do something different than what I've done in past years. I found this 100s Chart online, and ran off five copies on the same color tag. (If you click on picture below, you'll get a larger version you can save and print yourself.)

I then cut each sheet in different ways, so that each one was an individual puzzle. Here's what one looks like put together.

And what it looks like cut apart.

One of my stations will be for the children to work together to put all five puzzles together.

Using Giant Floor Puzzles for Math Stations

I have a few giant floor puzzles that I haven't been able to utilize this year, since the children have to be on the carpet to put them together. I'm going to periodically begin putting one of the puzzles in our math stations. I've always been a firm believer in using puzzles in the classroom to stimulate the brain, and this will be a great way to have the children working as a team to get the puzzles completed within a set amount of time.

3 Uses For an Old Puzzle

When a neighbor was cleaning out her kids' rooms to get ready for a garage sale, and I saw her chunking out this puzzle, I asked if I could have it. She told me I was welcome to it, but that there were pieces missing. No problem!

I was already getting ideas as to how to use the pieces in other ways. Here's 3 of them.

 Use popsicle sticks to create a frame. Glue the puzzle pieces along the edge to decorate.

Let your students come up with a creature/animal of their own design.

Finally, incorporate a handful of pieces as markers for board games.

A Puzzle Tip and Trick

I have some children who are challenged when it comes to simple board puzzles. So I'm passing along a little trick that I do to help these students feel successful.

First, you take the puzzle and dump the pieces so all you're left with is the plain inner board.

Then, you take one piece at a time, and as you place it back inside the puzzle, trace the piece with a permanent marker. Do this for the entire puzzle.

When you're finished, after you remove all the pieces, the back board now resembles the individual pieces and where they should go.

Cereal Box Puzzles

This was so easy, and the kids tell me they're doing it at home! Have each child bring you an empty cereal box from home. You can get fellow teachers to donate some of theirs for those children who don't bring one. Cut off the front, then cut into "puzzle" pieces. Store in a plastic baggie. Keep the bags in a box for them to sort and pick from. (Hint: use a paper cutter instead of scissors. Much easier!)

Extra hint: later on you can re-cut the pieces into smaller sizes to increase difficulty!

Make Your Own Puzzles!

Kindergarteners love to put together puzzles. They also love to make their own.

There are several ways to get pictures:
- coloring books
- coloring sheets off the internet
- pages out of old books
- a hand-drawn picture made by the child

Once the picture is ready, just glue it to a nice study backing like a piece of cardboard or posterboard. Once it dries, cut the puzzle into simple blocks. Store puzzles in plastic bags or a plastic container.

Note: I've taken pictures of the finished puzzle before it was cut apart to include in with the pieces, to give the kids an idea of which puzzle it was, and how it's supposed to look when done.

Puzzle boxes falling apart?

I love dollar stores. I found these nice-sized clear plastic containers with EASY OPENING LIDS and clear tops.  Taking my puzzles that were still intact (but with the cardboard boxes falling to pieces), I transferred the puzzle pieces to a container and taped the completed picture from the old lid to the new lid.  Not only has this helped, but the containers are easily stackable, too.