Puzzles Are For More Than Just Play!

I am super excited to share this find with you...

I was recently at Target and they had these SUPER adorable gingerbread house puzzles.

I stared at them for a long time trying to decide HOW I could use them...

I bought 4 knowing that if I didn't get them an idea would come to me as soon as I got home!

As I drove home I started thinking of how to use them!

Here is what I came up with...

I used super adorable gingerbread house clip art I had mixed with spinner clip art I bought to make a gingerbread house spinner.  It has 5 sections because there are 5 pieces to the puzzle:

I thought of ways I could use it...

*sight word ID

*number ID

*counting

*capital/lowercase matching

and how it could be modified for enrichment:

*CVC words

*addition/subtraction

BUT...if I wrote on the pieces they could only be used for 1 specific skill....

So I grabbed my removable tape that I use during interactive writing and gave it a test run!

It stuck real well and then when it was time, it peeled right off!

I laminated my spinners and used a dry erase marker.

The marker stuck well enough to the laminate for 'use' and then came off with a little elbow grease so that the spinners could be re-purposed for a different skill!

I know I am a 'visual learner' so I made a video showing how to use the puzzles and/or different ways to use them for different skills:

I plan on using these for our morning tubs/stations and/or as early finisher basket activities the next few weeks!

Add a whiteboard and the kids can record what they worked with-

*Write the capital/lowercase letter matches

*write a number and show that many dots

*write a sight word and/or use it in a sentence

*write a CVC word and draw a picture to match

*write the number sentence and answer

ETC.!

You could even provide them with a paper of a gingerbread shape/outline to do their recordings if you wanted to check for accountability!

SO what happens when the holidays are OVER?!

NO WORRIES...

I found these 'generic' puzzles in the dollar spot too:

These have 8 pieces so require a different spinner- but can be used in the same way as described above!

You can grab the spinners for the gingerbread houses AND some blank '8 space' spinners for the generic puzzles for FREE here:

Be sure to stop by again tomorrow (Sunday 11/27) for...

Dollar Deals

AND...

the chance to win a $10 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card!

Happy Target Dollar Spot Puzzle Shopping!

Until next post,