Jigsaw site for pen control activities

[Sarah Carpenter]

Thought this site/link may be of some use to whiteboard users working with young children to help with pen control.

www.activityvillage.co.uk has a range of activities, downloads and printables for a range of topics and they have just added a jigsaw section. The jigsaws come with different no. of pieces and adjacent pieces snap together when they are moved into the correct position.

Each jigsaw is a small downloadable file, about 250kb, and is complete in itself - you don't have to download any additional software. The jigsaws can be saved in a folder and then opened up in their own window to use on the whiteboard, allowing the children lots of practise in controlling and using the pen to move objects on screen.

The jigsaw themes so far are St George's Day Jigsaws, St Patrick's Day Jigsaws, Easter Jigsaws, Farm Animal Jigsaws and Spring Jigsaws. They're not bad quality either. I will try and attach one below but I'm not sure if the file format will be acceptable - have attached a screen shot of one of them instead.

+wave+

[sartley]

I agree with Sarah, these jigsaws are great!
You can also download a jigsaw creator and can use this to create your own puzzles on any topic. There is a freebie version, where you cannot alter the number of pieces that the jigsaw makes and one which you can buy, where you can choose the number of pieces in the puzzle. Once the puzzle is created and completed, I've used the camera tool to take a snapshot, put it on a flipchart page and then it can be used so that questions, comments, highlighting, etc can be used to take the learning further.

[Margaret Allen]

Somebody rang me recently to ask for this link and then rang back to say how much they liked it so thought I would pull it up!! [clap]

[Sarah Carpenter]

My class love it and will open up the folder and choose their own jigsaws first thing in the morning! It's great fun - even for big kids!! ;)

[sartley]

Here's the website address for any who might be interested in creating their own puzzles - I've used it as a starter activity for a new topic, then created a snapshot of the completed puzzle on a flipchart page and written the sorts of things we know/want to find out about the picture. You can alter the shapes and numbers of pieces, have music playing, etc.

The download I bought was just the puzzle with no pictures because I wanted to use my own - the princely sum of £6.73 - less than $5 for out continental cousins! But there are some other versions which you can buy which include lots of images.

http://www.tibosoftware.com/jigsawpuzzle.htm

[lucy]

Instant gratification with these online jigsaws straight from the web

http://www.jigzone.com/g.php

[Sarah Carpenter]

Nice site - thanks for the link Lucy [clap]

Sarah +wave+