Create Your Own!

Mainly aimed at teachers this one, sorry kids. Edhelper.com has a large range of puzzles that you can customize. These are ideal ways of presenting activities to children that are engaging. Get the children to create their own and challenge the class!

Logic Problems

Click to play

The ability to analyze and organize information, and present it in a logical, mathematical way is, for some children, and adults, an extremely difficult thing to do. These sets of logic problems are an excellent resource to develop this skill. As a teacher it is worth visiting the solving tips link to prepare the children.

Tic Tac Toe in 3D!

Puzzling Nelson has seen tic tac toe (noughts and crosses for us Kiwis) in circular form but 3D? Play the computer or play a friend, rotate the cube to view the entire playing space.

Click to play

QR Code

This is a bit of an experiment. Puzzling Nelson was wondering how this maze like image could be used as a form of progressive puzzle. Answer the problem and get a piece of the final answer. A bit like a web quest really. QR codes are a bit like a bar code but contain a lot of information. It's pretty to easy to create your own. Visit this site to have a play. The image is scanned by a mobile phone that has a qr reader downloaded on it. The scanned image can contain text, a map, url, sms or phone number. Probably lots more that Puzzling Nelson is not aware of.

Solitaire Chess

Love Chess or wish you knew how to play? Here is a great new game from Thinkfun which challenges both the chesspert and the novice just learning to play. Using standard chess moves the goal is to leave 1 piece remaining. The catch - every move must result in a capture. Four challenges are available on this taster. Choose from the options on the notepad top right corner.

Not sure how to play

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.