I’m linking up with Holly @ Fourth Grade Flipper for her Tuesday Tried It linky and Technology Tailgate for their Tuesday Technology linky! My new “tried it” of the week is Jigsaw Planet which has online jigsaw puzzle games. This website is great for this time of year because it is a simple activity that the kids get excited about and really they are still learning/practicing a skill!
The way I use this website with my little friends is by first having them each create Wordle clouds. I think most people know about Wordle already, but if not I highly recommend checking it out- it’s a great website to add to your list of classroom sites where kids can type words (like, long vowel words, rhyming words, etc) and then create fun and colorful word art. I usually choose a topic for the Wordle clouds based on what we are focusing on in our reading series or just something they need to review and have my students type up their words and then choose which Wordle they like the most. Since my little friends are so tech-savvy, they then screenshot their Wordle and send it to me via our website. After that, I take their Wordle pictures and upload them into Jigsaw Planet!
 |
| A ‘just for fun’ puzzle of one of our center activities! |
 |
| Long vowels puzzle. |
Common Core Alignment:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2d Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words.1 (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.1.3c Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds.
*(I chose these standards because of the specific examples I used in the pictures, but really many standards would work based on what you are focusing on with the puzzles.)
Jigsaw Planet is very user friendly! You can create a free account and then start uploading images from your computer to create some puzzles. Once you have an account set up, click Create and then upload your image, add a name, decide how many pieces you want included (easy to hard) and then choose the actual shape of the puzzle pieces you want to use. Once you have all that in there, your puzzle is created and students can then complete the puzzles.
 |
| How to create a puzzle! |
I have my little friends log in under my account and choose their puzzle that they wish to complete- they just select the puzzle, complete it and then “scatter” the pieces at the end and choose a new one! My little friends really love their Jigsaw Planet time- and like I said- it can be educational where they are practicing reading sight words, long vowel words etc while creating the puzzle OR simply a nice brain break that keeps them busy!
 |
| This is the home screen they see when logged in as me. |
 |
| A finished puzzle of ai/ay words. |
You do not need 1:1 computers for this to work- if you have 2 computers in your room, you can simply have students save their Wordles on those computers and then later you can upload those pictures onto Jigsaw Planet yourself or even have the students do the creating of the puzzles as well depending on their abilities with computers! You can also of course make this even simpler by having students just use the puzzles they already have created on the site- there are a whole lot on there (according to their terms of use, all their content is family safe and as far as I can tell, it is true). Or, you can have students just take pictures of random objects, people etc in your room and do “fun” puzzles. 🙂
 |
| Images of already created puzzles for you to use! |
Have a great day!
Aylin
0 Responses
This is great. I'm gonna have to try this out. Very cool.
matt
Digital: Divide & Conquer
Wonderful idea! I can see so many ways I could use this. Thank you for sharing it!
Lori
Conversations in Literacy
Jigsaw Planet is new to me! How exciting! I can't wait to check it out! Thanks for sharing!
Joanne
Head Over Heels For Teaching
This is a great idea that is totally new to me. Thanks for sharing! I can't wait to try it out.
Hunter's Tales from Teaching
This is awesome! So many possibilities!
Kristin
iTeach 1:1
Oh my! I just blogged about Wordle too but I didn't know about this! How awesome is it that your firsties can do this all on their own?? I love it!! Thanks for sharing!
Amanda
Collaboration Cuties
This is SO neat!! I can't believe your first graders can do all that! This is amazing and I am pinning for later. Thanks:)
~Holly
Fourth Grade Flipper
Very informative and well written post! Quite interesting and nice topic chosen for the post.
Toshiba – 17.3" Satellite Laptop – 6GB Memory – 750GB Hard Drive – Ice Blue
Toshiba – 15.6" Satellite Laptop – 8GB Memory – 750GB Hard Drive – Platinum