Improve Your Students’ Skills With Puzzles And Games
By Aldene Fredenburg, Sat Dec 10th
Pattern recognition, spatial relationships, and logical thinkingare all necessary skills as students learn to read, do math, anddevelop problem-solving strategies. Having a big collection ofpuzzles and games on hand can make developing these skills fun.
Many children’s magazines contain creative, age-appropriategames that reinforce the content of the text, but that’s onlyone source. You can also enlist parents to contribute crosswordpuzzles and other games they find from newspapers and magazines.
Sudoku is all the rage now; papers from the local daily to theNew York Times carry at least one sudoku puzzle in everyissue. Each puzzle consists of a large square, divided into ninesections in a 3X3 pattern, each of which is divided into ninemore squares, also in a 3×3 pattern. The object of the game isto place the numerals from 1 to 9 in each of the nine squares ofeach section; numerals cannot be repeated within the sections oracross or up and down in any line of squares. A great way forolder kids to practice pattern recognition and problem solvingstrategies, the sudoku puzzles range from the simple to themaddeningly difficult; the New York Post offers both aneasy and difficult puzzle in every issue, and sells sudoku booksas well. A number of websites offer free sukodu puzzles playableonline, and offer software programs which can be purchased anddownloaded; start with sudoku.com.
Mah jongg is an ancient Asian game traditionally played withdecorative tiles arranged and stacked in a three-dimensionalpattern. The object of the game is to find two identical tilesand remove them from the pile; the trick is that the tilescannot have another tile located on top of it or to the left orright; one side has to be free. Sort of like an elaborateversion of “Old Maid” or “Go Fish,” the tiles have both simpleand complex patterns; several patterns have subtle differences,demanding fine-tuned pattern recognition skills in addition tospatial relationship abilities. Simplified versions areavailable for younger children. Kids who enjoy tactilekinesthetic activities will have fun manipulating the tiles;visually oriented computer fans may prefer one of the many mahjongg programs available online. Both multi-player and solitaireversions are available; play a solitaire versionfree; or check out multiple versions of mah jongg forkids.
Yahooligans.comincludes a huge collection of games and other interesting infofor kids. Other websites offer games which can be played onlinewith other web surfers around the world, but if you’re thinkingof allowing your students access to a game site online, be sureto check it out and monitor the kids frequently, to make surethey don’t end up in communication with the wrong people.
You may want to use these games as a springboard for yourself oryour students to develop their own games, for themselves or foryounger kids. A version of sudoku for younger kids, for example,might involve pictures of nine different kinds of animals; finda few very simple sudoku puzzles and substitute nine differentanimal pictures for the numbers. Create a giant sudoku grid andmake big cardboard or wooden animal pieces to make it easy forlittle hands to manipulate them. However you decide toincorporate games and puzzles into your classroom, it’s a greatway to keep kids learning while they play.
About the author:Aldene Fredenburg is a freelance writer living in southwesternNew Hampshire and frequently contributes to Tips andTopics. She may be reached at amfredenburg@yahoo.com.
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September 2nd, 2007 at 8:08 am
if you are into Kakuro check out this Kakuro web-site for playing online, it’s my favourite … have fun
February 29th, 2008 at 1:42 am
Hello Super arts about Animal Mah Jongg