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Use Jigsaw Puzzles to Teach Concentration Skills |
Jigsaw puzzles are the main tools we use to teach concentration in the classroom or to those we tutor at home. Students learn to take them apart and put them back together repeatedly, focusing on the shape and size of the innies and outties. This causes the child to pay attention to details and gain eye-hand coordination, which carries over into other areas of learning. We gave a brontosaurus to a 2-year-old nephew and his mother showed him how to work it. She reported to us later that he carried it around all day, working and reworking it, and never lost a piece. We believe this was an important start for him, as he was always considered to be highly gifted. Click here to read the whole story of how jigsaw puzzles became an important part of our educational program.
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| Students concentrating on reading after working puzzles |
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| 2nd graders |
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| Student concentrating on a puzzle |
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In the Classroom
Steve's wife, Marsha, a first grade teacher, took a few puzzles to school with her so that that she could use them to teach her students to concentrate. It worked very well and the children were so comfortable with their ability to handle the puzzles that one day they began to get them out of the windowsill and use them as models to draw from. Marsha had taught them the Blind Contour Drawing method in the first week of school, telling the students that is was the method she herself used to draw the puzzles. Much to Marsha's amazement they were all able to produce beautiful drawings.
This caused Marsha to realize that her students were limited only by her conception of their abilities and so in every suceeding year she began each class with jigsaw puzzle stratigies, drawing and painting. This brought big rewards for her students who always scored, on average, at the 50%tile or better in an inner-city Los Angeles neighborhood. Her principal told her that her children's scores were three times higher that other averages in the area and later results showed her students above the state average in all ten areas on the State Standards Test.
To see more about her methods go to: www.artsimprovingacademics.org
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