I have to thank Mary Walker for this one. She alerted me to a freeware program that has huge potential for developing learning activities. It goes by the not-so-catchy name of Formulator Tarsia and is developed by the Hermitech Laboratory of Mathematical and Modeling (sic) Software. A direct download link to the program can be found here.
The program makes tessellating puzzles in a variety of shapes for your own learning activities. With the software you can create, print out, save and exchange customised tessellating jigsaws, domino activities and a variety of rectangular card sort activities. The activities created using the software can be presented in printable form, ready to cut out and with an answer sheet.
There are several types of activity:
• hexagonal jigsaws made up of equilateral triangles
• different sets of rectangular cards including ‘follow me’ cards
• dominoes for domino activities
• various polygonal puzzles (love that phrase!)
In the polygonal puzzles [:)] the idea is that each piece of the puzzle has either a question or an answer along its sides. Students match them up and eventually complete the puzzle to form a shape like the one above. Puzzles can be customised with mathematical formulae, text or images to provide the elements to be matched.
Whist it was originally developed for maths (see example left), it is also possible to use this program for many subjects, given that it allows the input of text and images. In English, it could reinforce the learning of a literary text; it could also be used for matching words and definitions; or it could be used to help learn spellings. In fact, it is a pretty generic way of creating many of those card-based activities that we all use irrespective of subject.
The program is very easy to use and, even better, the activities can be shared as files with the extension *.fjsw. When you install the program there is an option to install some excellent samples from Bryan Dye of Maths Net to get you started.
Having toyed with this idea for two days now, I can’t wait to try it out in my classroom. Above you can see my first spelling puzzle made with the program. I have also made a version to help my Year 10 students match quotations to the characters from Othello. Great fun!
My spelling puzzle may be found here.
Filed under: Education, Freeware Programs, Just for Fun, Language, Maths, Resources, Teaching, Teaching English, Thinking Skills
I’m pondering this. I think it can work in my second grade classroom as an independent practice activity. Hmm….
I must admit I haven’t tried it out myself (would have done so today except flooding closed my school) so I can’t give my impression of how it worked. I suspect it could be a very useful addition to the range of strategies available for kinaesthetic learners.
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