Sudoku for kids

Sudoku is a fantastic game for improving visual discrimination, logic and strategy skills. In my experience with Gr 2s, the kids love it.

Thankfully, it comes in so many different levels that it is possible to find something for every child and then to upgrade gradually.

The most simple sudoku puzzles are in picture form (4x4) - usually in two levels:

• the easiest level is where only one picture from each block is missing (this requires children to only look at each 2x2 block and not at rows or columns)
• a little harder is where more pictures are missing (and the child now has to look at blocks, rows and columns)

A great picture sudoku website is:

where you can find the 2 levels described above and a variety of themes. (click on logo)

Once a child has got the hang of picture sudoku, it is time to move to numbers. There are many different levels.

A great numbers website is:

where you can find two levels of number sudokus:

• numbers 1-4 in a 4x4 format
• numbers 1-6 in a 6x6 format

Games for learning

In the Numeracy Programme that I run, I feel it is important to include content on problem-solving, logic and strategic thinking, for good foundations for maths later on. I also like to use as many forms of teaching/practicing a concept as possible (to encourage a fuller understanding) and to use as many games as possible.

Recently, I discovered a TpT (Teachers Pay Teachers) teacher-author who has created amazing puzzles and games that satisfy my above objectives.

Introducing... Games 4 learning by Theresa in Australia.

She has made colourful, unique and exciting games for kids, and many of them are FREE. There are both literacy and numeracy games (suitable for about age 7-10). Click on the picture to go to her TpT store (you will have to register before you can download).

Thank you Theresa!

Beautiful basics

This British site has a limited collection, but they provide quality solid basics that are all colouful and appealing to children.

This website can be browsed according to subject or theme. All downloads are FREE and UNLIMITED.

My favourite thing on this site is the Bingo format which is used in many resources. My kids (the ones I work with in my Numeracy Programme) love this format. Although they are not familiar with the concept of Bingo and don't call it out when they win, they love racing to be the first to cover all the blocks on their sheet. Just beware that the Bingo files often end up as 8 page (or more) documents which can turn into a lot of printing. I sometimes just print a few pages (I don't usually need the standard 6 different gameboards that they come with) or print two on a page. The "answer cards" can usually be printed in black and white to save ink. Also, beware that there are not enough "answer cards" for every board to be used at the same time (even 2 boards at a time) so you may need multiple copies of that section of the file. I love the way that you can practice a specific range of numbers as the files are clearly labeled and differentiated.

Amazingly, this website also has some of its resources in Afrikaans!

It also has a section on physical education and special needs in addition to the usual literacy, numeracy etc.

Great worksheets

This website has some great worksheets - I haven't explored the other sections the site. You have to register to download and there is a limit - I think 10 a month. I have accidently by-passed this limit and if I knew how I did it, I would let you know, but I have no idea!
www.education.com

Best educational resources site

This site is a major GOLD MINE! Its name is Teachers Pay Teachers (or TpT) and the idea is that instead of getting resources from people who don't necessarily teach, you can get ones made and used by teachers. You can save yourself time and know that your money is going to the people on the ground instead of the corporates. I just mentioned money, but don't panic: I have downloaded hundreds of top quality resources for FREE!

The authors on this website are mostly Americans - either those amazing teachers dedicated to making learning fun, or homeschooling moms who are super creative. The syllabus is slightly different to ours in South Africa, but this website has inspired me to include some super-helpful topics which are not mentioned in CAPS (our new SA curriculum). On the whole, the American grade system corresponds surprisingly well with ours, so if you are looking for Gr 2 stuff, you can look under 2nd Grade.

This site is very searchable which is a big plus because it is huge. You can either browse within categories (e.g. subject, topic, grade level, price - and multiple categories at once!!!) or search for something specific. You can easily access the free resources by either clicking "free" on the list of categories on the left, or you can sort your search results by price (by clicking on drop down arrow directly above search results). You might have to look through a few pages of free stuff to find what you are looking for, but I can guarantee it will be worth it.

Teachers Pay Teachers has been a huge inspiration in my methods of teaching and structuring the Numeracy Programme I run. There are so many games which the children absolutely LOVE.

You need to register to use TpT and when you do, you have the option as registering as a seller and selling your own products. I am desperate to try selling, but can't right now due to not yet having an intellectual property agreement on the stuff I make.

TpT is always my first port of call when needing educational resources and I use it almost every day. But beware, it is addictive and it will change your life!

P.S. TpT also has a lot of free clip art, frames and borders :)

Let's kick off with some amazing graphics

I am dedicating my first post on this blog to a superb graphics website: www.mycutegraphics.com. This website has allowed me to create my own numeracy worksheets for the Numeracy Programme I run. These graphics are ideal for using in children's learning materials. They are grouped according to themes (which you can access by clicking on "graphics") such as space, pirates, spring, sports etc etc.

The graphics are FREE to use as long as you credit the source (even for commercial purposes). This website is so awesome, they even update it regularly with new themes and have recently added borders and frames. The frames come in two sizes, the larger size that can be used for an A4 sheet and look really good in combination with a background from elsewhere. All the graphics have no white backgrounds which means you can put them on top of anything.

More graphics posts on the way, but this one is a real WINNER for graphics for kids! I actually can't tell you how amazing it is, I use it almost every day.