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Are you looking for a way to make skill review more exciting and engaging for your students? You should give kindergarten mystery puzzles a try! Your students will be so engaged in these hands-on and interactive activities that they won’t even realize they’re hard at work. In this post, I’m going to share more details about this low-prep activity that kindergarten students absolutely love!
Similar to mystery pictures that I’ve shared before, mystery puzzles are print-and-go activities that each focus on a specific academic skill. As students match the puzzle pieces to the blanks on the page, they are assembling a mystery picture. This makes the activity an engaging way for students to practice fine motor skills, since students need to cut out and assemble the puzzle pieces.
These printable puzzles include all of the pieces needed to complete the activity on one page, making them very easy to prep and distribute! The only other materials that students will need to complete this activity are scissors, glue, and a writing utensil. Crayons are also highly encouraged!
There are just a few steps involved in completing mystery puzzles. It truly is such an easy way to keep your students engaged in phonics and math review. They will be so excited to watch the pictures take shape as they complete each activity!
The first step is for students to cut out the puzzle pieces along the side of the paper. This is great fine motor practice for their little hands!
As they cut out the pieces, they can set them aside until the next step. You can encourage them to line them up separately from the slivers of cut paper so they don’t accidentally get thrown away.
Once all of the pieces have been cut out, it’s time to match them up to the squares of the puzzle! This step varies depending on what skill you would like students to practice.
For example, students are identifying and writing CVC words for this mystery puzzle.
For this particular activity, students will look at the first numbered box on the puzzle and name the picture. Once they know what CVC word they are looking for, students will find the puzzle piece with the word that matches the picture.
Once students have found the correct puzzle piece for a numbered box on the puzzle, they will record that information on their paper. In this case, students will find the numbered line that matches the box they just matched on the puzzle. Then they will write the correct CVC word on the line.
This additional task ensures that students aren’t just putting the picture together without practicing the targeted skill.
Students can repeat this process until they have matched all of the puzzle pieces and completed the recording sheet. Students are always so excited to see the final picture take shape as they put the puzzle pieces in the correct spaces.
Students can choose to glue down the pieces as they go or wait until the end to attach the puzzle pieces to their papers.
Once the puzzle has been assembled and glued together, you can give students some time to color the picture. This is a fun way to add even more fine motor practice to this activity.
There are so many ways that you can use this activity in your kindergarten classroom!
Mystery puzzles can be a fun way to welcome your students to class each morning. Since the format of the task is the same, it doesn’t take long for them to get the hang of the routine.
Students are always so excited to see what the puzzle turns out to be, they will sit right down and get to work!
Mystery puzzles can also be a fun station option for literacy and math centers. Since the puzzle makes this activity self-correcting, it’s easier for students to complete these activities independently during centers time.
Since mystery puzzles cover so many different phonics and math skills, they’re a great way to add targeted practice to your small group time. You can easily differentiate the activities to focus on the specific skills your students need to practice.
Do you need an engaging activity to keep your students on task while they wait for the next class activity to start? Mystery puzzles make great fast finisher activities! You can print out a few options to have on hand for students to choose from.
Mystery puzzles can also be a fun activity to send home with students. Whether you’re sending it home as homework or as part of a packet of summer learning activities, these activities are a great way to help students keep their skills sharp! As I mentioned above, since the activities use a similar format for each skill, it doesn’t take much adult help for students to complete the mystery puzzles at home.
I have put together a bundle of kindergarten mystery puzzles that will last you the whole school year! This mega bundle includes over 150 seasonal mystery puzzles that cover a wide variety of phonics and math skills. These skills follow a natural progression through the kindergarten curriculum, so you’ll be able to have engaging resources to give your students extra practice all year long.
If you’d like to take a closer look at everything included in this bundle, you can find it in the A Spoonful of Learning shop or on TPT.
Be sure to save this post so you can come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite teaching board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find these mystery puzzles when you’re looking for a fun way to get your students excited about phonics and math practice!
These alphabet books will have students dive deep into learning about each letter of the alphabet while eager to see what activity they get to complete next!
