3+ yrs
Ease *****
Overview:
Jigsaw Planet is a flexible piece of software for creating online jigsaws. You can create jigsaws from photographs e.g. http://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=176b68751800 or from learners own drawings as outlined in this activity.
Description:
Learners draw a picture on Paint (or similar software) The simpler their drawing the easier the resulting jigsaw will be to solve. The picture must be saved to your files.
You can create an account on http://www.jigsawplanet.com/ .but this isn’t necessary in order to create jigsaws. However it does make your jigsaws easier to find!
Click the create button and upload your photo from your saved file. It’s often easier to save the picture to your desktop, but this is a matter of preference.
Once uploaded, choose how many pieces you’d like your jigsaw to be and their shape. Again, these choices will determine how easy/difficult the final puzzle will be.
Once learners have done this, they click the create tab at the bottom and their jigsaw will appear.
They can either solve their own jigsaw or ask a friend to do so. Once they’ve finished, a pop-up will appear to tell them how long it took them to solve!
Share the puzzles on a Facebook page, twitter or on a blog or a web page
Challenge learners to solve each other’s puzzles. Do the challenge in pairs. One learner records the time taked and the other one solves the puzzles. Then they change roles.
What do I need?
- Paint software e.g. Paint
- Internet access
- Saved picture on file
Added value:
Learners always enjoy creating their own puzzles, here they can have double the fun because they create their own puzzles from their own pictures or use their own photographs. We especially love the fact that the puzzles can be made to be easy/difficult ensuring sufficient engagement whatever the learners’ ages or abilities!
Hints and tips:
If learners are having difficulty, they can click on the picture image in the bottom left hand corner to see how the completed puzzle should look once completed.
Safety:
If they are using photographs of themselves to create puzzles, ensure that you have parental permission to do this as the puzzles are accessible to everyone online.
Other opportunities to use the same software:
- Use it to consolidate vocabulary: http://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=370f05946bd7
- Use it to practice spelling by creating Wordle puzzles!
This post is also available in: German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Welsh
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Cymraeg
Hours of fun for teachers too… or maybe Jen and I should get out more?
Love it! Simple, easy to use! tried to explain animals in a farm.
A teacher of the third class of the kindergarten very often uses jigsaw.
She uses photographs of the children so that they can make puzzles with a picture of themselves, the children love it.
She also photographes existing puzzles to make her own jigsaw puzzles.
In this way, the children can make the same (more difficult) puzzle on the computer as they did physically.
Or they work the other way round : they first make an easier version of the puzzle on the computer and later a more difficult one ‘in real life’.
To adjust the difficulty of a jighsaw puzzle really is a value :
different amounts of pieces, but also different types of puzzles.
A must for the whole school.
Also in the third degree it’s a challenge for the children to make a very difficult puzzle of themselves or a classmate.
This is great advice! Thank you very much.