SET

One of the most popular maths card games is SET - a highly addictive, original game of visual perception; a fascinating challenge for either solitaire or competitive play. Players are challenged to identify a set of three cards that fulfill three or more of the four variables - colour, number, shape and fill. As an early morning starter activity the SET daily puzzle is a great activity to show through the classroom projector. Simply check the boxes under the cards that make a set.

QWIRKLE!

The lovely Elsa at Crackerjack Toys has just lent me QWIRKLE. How generous. This seems to have similarities to the card game SET, dominoes, even scrabble! I'll be interested to get the feedback from the children.

Invent Your Own!

While trawling through Think Fun's youtube channel I came across this home made adaptation of Rush Hour. Most puzzles are simply adaptations on existing themes. Puzzling Nelson was very impressed at the potential of this game. Does anyone else have any great ideas? Let us know.

German Marcus Gotz created this online version of the game. Not sure which came first the online game or the childrens' game.

New For Teachers

The great folk at Think Fun have now made it possible to teach Rush Hour and Chocolate Fix strategies without having to buy loads of games. Available to download are game boards and pieces for both popular games. In addition creative ways of how to use the games are included. Puzzling Nelson suggests these be printed onto thin card or laminated. To view these click on the image below.

Spin Out

The very first puzzle that Think Fun made, (they were called Binary Arts back then) was Spin Out. The goal is to slide the ruler out the sleeve by rotating the dials on the ruler. It's quite tricky. Click on the image to play.

Interactive Tangrams

There are some great polyform puzzles around - shape by shape, lokulus. The tangram is the one that most people are familiar with. Here is an interactive site to test your skill. Click on the image below to play.

Brain Labs are Here!

Brain Labs are an innovation of Think Fun, the US educational toy manufacturer. Since I'm teaching at St Josephs School in Nelson this term I thought I'd register the class to take part for a month of thinking skill development. In order to take part in brain labs it is necessary to register an interest first then set up an account for your group. I'll see how it goes this year then spread the word well before next year's event. 

The players are allowed to practice as many times as they like before they enter the tournament. Their results are analysed in conjunction with a US University. 

Clifton Terrace

Puzzling Nelson is about to start the second of two days with the year 5/6 students from Clifton Terrace School in Nelson. The students applied themselves extremely well on the first day being challenged by a number of crafty puzzles. The students were very perseverant and showed extremely good collaborative skills.
Puzzling Nelson also noticed they spent a fair amount of time playing puzzles on this blog after school which is great to see. Just a word of caution though that excessive amounts of puzzling can make you intelligent.

Look what Puzzling Nelson Stumbled Upon

Trawling through a few class blogs Puzzling Nelson stumbled upon Maths Doodles. An interesting range of maths problems presented in a puzzling style. Puzzling Nelson particularly liked the hydro maze - a game to reinforce quick mental addition and subtraction.

Lokulus

Having just placed an order for a few more puzzles Puzzling Nelson was tempted by a polyform puzzle called Lokulus. Described as the world's oldest puzzle it is similar in many ways to Shape by Shape. After playing on the shop counter at Crackerjack I decided that it deserved a place in my collection.

Puzzling Nelson Brochure

Clever Castle

Another game for the younger child is Clever Castle. Choose your difficulty and match the figures on the playing board to the given clues.
Click on the image to play.

Hoppers Jr

Hoppers Jr is a simplified version of Hoppers designed for younger children. Select your skill level.
Click on the image to play.

What's GNU?

What's GNU is a high paced simple spelling game suitable for junior level children. Keep score, beat your friends.
Click on the image to play.