For anyone new to this blog, the idea is simple - each day my boys (Joshua - 9 and Archie - 7) choose a stimulus that drives the learning. We hope that you enjoy the blog and can take some inspiration from what we love doing - making learning as engaging as possible!
Crosswords and Puzzles
Josh and Archie have always loved puzzles. From the basic wordsearches you get in Pizza Express to their new-found interest in crosswords and Sudoku, they love trying to crack codes and find solutions. Today's activities are all designed to show them how these mind meddlers are made. We hope you enjoy the ideas and try these out at home yourself.
English
spelling rules
sentence construction
connections, clues and riddles
Creating a wordsearch is fr more challenging than it first appears. As much as the boys love tackling these puzzles, they had absolutely no idea about how to approach them.
I love this website as it is so simple to use and creates the crossword without any complication. Here is what we did:
Name your crossword in the box shown.
Begin by writing 10 - 15 words that interest you and you know about. This is important as you need to be able to write a clue and therefore need to have knowledge.
Then, write clues to the words. Remember, the clue needs to help the reader work out the answer. If it is too vague or random it becomes impossible.
Once this is done, you are only a click of a button away to creating your own crossword. You can then share this with friends or family and challenge them to try to complete your puzzle.
Here are the boys' efforts:
Word of warning - make sure the children realise that they should not pur spaces in the answers. This caused quite a lot of confusion. 😂
Maths
problem solving
number patterns
probability
This is a fabulous website to introduce children to Sudoku. It offers level of challenge, different size boards and also allows for the children to check their answers and see the solution.
Once we went over the strategies of how to approach these puzles, the boys were away. Ideal for a day when you have lots of work to catch up on yourself. 😁
If you have enjoyed reading this blog, please do follow us. Alternatively, you may like to follow me on Twitter: @JamieWTSA.
My thanks to Pie Corbett and Talk for Writing for inspiring many of the ideas explored in this blog.
Do tune in tomorrow, when our stimulus is flowers.
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