Puzzle Play

Developmentally: When children work on puzzles, they are actually "putting the pieces together" in more ways than one. Puzzles help children build the skills they need to read, write, solve problems, and coordinate their thoughts and actions—all of which they will use in school and beyond. Pick puzzles that are appropriate for your child’s age. Working with puzzles develops “pre-math” skills as children begin to realize that the sum of the parts make up a whole. Toddlers benefit from simple, shape puzzles with knobs that are easy to grasp, while preschoolers and school age children progressively enjoy puzzles with more pieces. By inserting pieces into the puzzle, children also develop the muscle group used for writing, or the "pincer" grasp.

Children can work on puzzles by themselves, without the help of adults or other children. They can also work together on large puzzles and practice compromising and getting along. Because each child must concentrate on the puzzle individually, he experiences a sense of satisfaction as he picks up a piece, rotates it, and discovers the spot in which it fits. Piece by piece, he begins to recognize the picture that the puzzle represents.

The downside to puzzles is that good, quality ones are expensive, easy to lose, and hard to store. Try some of these ideas for homemade, low cost puzzles with the kids in your care.

Felt Funny Faces
You’ll need: white glue, thin cardboard, felt squares and scraps, scissors and yarn. Spread glue on the cardboard and cover it with felt. From another piece of felt, cut out a circle for a face. Glue it onto the felt-covered cardboard. Cut out many different sizes and shapes of eyes, ears, noses, mouths and eyebrows. For hair, cut out felt styles or cut lengths of yarn. You can also make funny features, such as clown lips or animal ears. Mix and match the parts of the face to make all types of new faces.

Rocky Puzzle
You’ll need: an assortment of rocks, permanent markers or acrylic craft pain and a brush, a small plastic bag. Find a handful of rocks and pebbles to make a unique rock puzzle. These instructions are for a person, but you could make animals, a tiny town or a rock band! Choose a round rock for the head and an oval rock for the body. Find narrow stones for the arms and legs and small round ones for the hands. See if you can find small, oval stones for the shoes. Can you find a stone for a hat? Draw or paint on a face, hair, clothing and shoes.

A Puzzle You Can Wear
With an adult’s help, poke a small hole through a plastic bottle cap. Push a large paper fastener through the hole from the inside to the outside. Trace the outline of the cap onto a plastic-foam tray and onto a clear plastic lid. Cut out the circles. Trim the foam and place it in the bottle cap. Use a pen to draw a simple design on the foam. Color the design. In a few places, gently press the pen into the foam to make holes for beads. Put as many small beads as your puzzle needs into the cap. You can make the puzzle more challenging by using colored beads that match various parts of the puzzle. Trim the plastic circle so that it fits on the top of the cap, and use clear tape to tape it in place. Bend the ends of the paper fastener around a marker to form a circle. Adjust the circle to fit your finger and wrap tape around the ends.

Jigsaw Names
You’ll need: one piece of cardboard, markers, paper clips, scissors. Write each child’s name in large-sized upper and lower case letters on a piece of cardboard. Cut cardboard into four sections. Invite children to put together their name puzzles. Store the puzzles in envelops.

Sponge Letters
You’ll need: large sponges, and a marker. Draw, then cut sponge into a letter shape. Cut the large sponge letter into several pieces.

Treasure Hunt for Puzzles
Dump the pieces of several wooden puzzles into a small bag. Give each child in the group an empty puzzle frame. One at a time, let children reach into the bag and pick a puzzle piece. Have them look at all the puzzles and try to figure out where the pieces belong. Everyone is a winner when all the puzzles are completed!

Giant Cookie Puzzle
Cut a large shape from cookie dough. Place on a cookie sheet and score it all the way through into large pieces with a knife. Bake until browned. Cool and gently break into puzzle pieces. Have children put the shape together, name it, and then eat it.

Recycled Puzzles
Use old greeting cards, calendars and cereal boxes as puzzles. Laminate these if you want, to help them last longer. Then cut into puzzle pieces for kids to use. Store in envelopes.

Funny People Puzzles
 You’ll need: old magazines, glue, scissors and cardboard. Go through magazines to find five, full-length pictures of people (with their heads, bodies, and feet) all approximately the same size. (The more different they are, the funnier the puzzles will be.) Cut out each picture into three parts-head, body, and legs. Glue the pictures onto equal sized squares of cardboard.

Self Portrait Floor Puzzles
You’ll need: butcher paper, markers, scissors and crayons. Use the paper to trace around children’s body shapes. Then cut out and decorate. Laminate and cut into puzzle pieces.

Shape Puzzles
 You’ll need: poster board in four different colors, and scissors. Cut out the four basic shapes – circle, square, rectangle, triangle – from four different colors of poster board. Cut each shape up into five or six pieces like a puzzle. Mix up all the pieces, then let children put them together by matching the colors.

Animal Parts Puzzle
You’ll need pictures of animals (cut from a nature magazine), scissors, glue and cardboard. Glue pictures on to the cardboard. Cut pictures into parts – head, body, tail, legs, wings. Let children put them together, puzzle fashion, to create fantastic animals.

Thank you to Lisa Albert from the EPTSS Division for this month's activity!

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