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Home::Reference & Education
Improve Your Students' Skills with Puzzles and Games
Author : Aldene Fredenburg
Pattern recognition, spatial relationships, and logical thinking
are all necessary skills as students learn to read, do math, and
develop problem-solving strategies. Having a big collection of
puzzles and games on hand can make developing these skills fun.
Many children's magazines contain creative, age-appropriate
games that reinforce the content of the text, but that's only
one source. You can also enlist parents to contribute crossword
puzzles and other games they find from newspapers and magazines.
Sudoku is all the rage now; papers from the local daily to the
New York Times carry at least one sudoku puzzle in every
issue. Each puzzle consists of a large square, divided into nine
sections in a 3X3 pattern, each of which is divided into nine
more squares, also in a 3x3 pattern. The object of the game is
to place the numerals from 1 to 9 in each of the nine squares of
each section; numerals cannot be repeated within the sections or
across or up and down in any line of squares. A great way for
older kids to practice pattern recognition and problem solving
strategies, the sudoku puzzles range from the simple to the
maddeningly difficult; the New York Post offers both an
easy and difficult puzzle in every issue, and sells sudoku books
as well. A number of websites offer free sukodu puzzles playable
online, and offer software programs which can be purchased and
downloaded; start with sudoku.com.
Mah jongg is an ancient Asian game traditionally played with
decorative tiles arranged and stacked in a three-dimensional
pattern. The object of the game is to find two identical tiles
and remove them from the pile; the trick is that the tiles
cannot have another tile located on top of it or to the left or
right; one side has to be free. Sort of like an elaborate
version of "Old Maid" or "Go Fish," the tiles have both simple
and complex patterns; several patterns have subtle differences,
demanding fine-tuned pattern recognition skills in addition to
spatial relationship abilities. Simplified versions are
available for younger children. Kids who enjoy tactile
kinesthetic activities will have fun manipulating the tiles;
visually oriented computer fans may prefer one of the many mah
jongg programs available online. Both multi-player and solitaire
versions are available; play a solitaire version
free; or check out multiple versions of mah jongg for
kids.
Yahooligans.com
includes a huge collection of games and other interesting info
for kids. Other websites offer games which can be played online
with other web surfers around the world, but if you're thinking
of allowing your students access to a game site online, be sure
to check it out and monitor the kids frequently, to make sure
they don't end up in communication with the wrong people.
You may want to use these games as a springboard for yourself or
your students to develop their own games, for themselves or for
younger kids. A version of sudoku for younger kids, for example,
might involve pictures of nine different kinds of animals; find
a few very simple sudoku puzzles and substitute nine different
animal pictures for the numbers. Create a giant sudoku grid and
make big cardboard or wooden animal pieces to make it easy for
little hands to manipulate them. However you decide to
incorporate games and puzzles into your classroom, it's a great
way to keep kids learning while they play.
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