Each pack came with 3 puzzles. Yes, there was a "boy" pack and a "girl" pack and I bought one of each.
After I put together all three puzzles, I flipped them over, face down keeping them in one piece.
(you can do this with the pieces individually keeping the puzzles apart, if that is easier for you).
I designated each puzzle to one word type; verbs, nouns, and adjectives. On the back of each puzzle piece I wrote one of that type of word.
For example, on the noun puzzle, I wrote a noun on the back of every piece in the puzzle. I then moved on to the "verb" puzzle and wrote a verb on the back of every piece of that puzzle, etc. The backs soon looked like this:
After all the words were written, I took the puzzle pieces apart and mixed them all together. Keeping the boy/girl different sets separate.
I placed each set of 3 puzzles in a container.
The children come and choose a set of puzzles and dump them out on a work surface. Next, by reading the words on the back, they sort them into three different piles, verbs, nouns and adjectives. After they have completed the all sorting, and working with one pile at a time, they turn the pieces over picture side up, and put the puzzle together.
After they have that puzzle put together, they move on to the next one.
If they did not sort the puzzles correctly, the puzzle will not fit together correctly, so they must look at the backs and see if they have all the correct pieces or sorted a piece into the wrong pile.
Once all three puzzles have been completed, students put all the pieces (of the same puzzle set) together in the container.
Three puzzles, three types of word practice!
You can do this with different puzzles that do not come in a set as well. Just choose 3 puzzles of the same type that have 25 pieces or less, and follow the same process.
This can be done for any grade level. For kinder you may want to have them sort puzzles by capital and lowercase letters, and perhaps add a number puzzle as well.
Get your puzzles, and the ideas ... they will come.
Chery
