Putting the World Together Is a Puzzle
By: Author Unknown
A mother had a lot of work and her little boy wanted a lot of attention. To keep him busy she took a magazine with a large map of the world on the cover and tore it up into small pieces.She told her little boy it was a map of the world, and that by the time he could put it back together, she would play with him. She was sure this would keep the child busy a long time.
Not much time later the boy came to his mother and said, "I put it together. Can we play now?"
She was surprised and said, "That's impossible. Show me." It was true, the picture of the world was all put together perfectly.
The mother figured her son was a genius and asked, "How did you do it so quickly?" The boy answered, "It was simple. On the back of the page was a picture of a man. When I put the man together the whole world fell into place."
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Starting a new year or a new project is always puzzling. Why not offer puzzles to people coming to your programs or your students? Many can be made to match your theme.
- Puzzlemaker is a puzzle generation tool for teachers, students and parents. Create and print customized word search, criss-cross, math puzzles, and more—using your own word lists. Discovery Education also sells a CD-ROM with extra features and clip art.
- Want a high quality crossword puzzle? Cnet's Download.com, the biggest download site on the internet named EclipseCrossword one of "The best free software products" in the games category. (Requires download, but is free.)
- For other crossword puzzlemaking reviews to decide which crossword puzzle creator best suits your needs, try Puzzle Software Review.
- Make Your Own Jigsaw Puzzle
- Tangrams are an old seven piece puzzle that can create many pictures. Click on the pink triangle for a Tangram story; on the blue triangle for your pattern.
- Looking for an online way to put a jigsaw puzzle together? At Jigsaw Planet use existing pictures or one from your own files. You control difficulty and shapes.
- Unlike the sites for making puzzles, if you're hooked on playing word games, Word Buff is for you with strategies for people who play word games to win.
- For games, Family Crafts - Homemade Games gives holiday and assorted other ideas for children and families.
- One very simple idea, useful even with young children, never was found in my search. Take several large tongue depressers and glue them to the back of a picture, cut the picture apart. (Children unable to cut this apart with scissors will do the activity up to this point, letting an adult or older child cut, then they can mix the pieces, and put it back together.)
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| TANGRAMS |
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Don't be puzzled.
Storytelling is adaptable to almost any theme and talks directly to your audience. LoiS has a wide variety of existing programs or can create one just for you. A sampling can be found at Programs A to Z .
Call 248-625-5848 or email LoiS-sez@LoiS-sez for more information.
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