Why every classroom should have jigsaw puzzles

Photo puzzles are some of the most popular playthings that parents can buy for their children. They are mostly used for fun but educators have realized that photo puzzles can also be used as effective learning tools for children. Children can benefit immensely if puzzles are included in their learning repertoire. This is because completing photo puzzles strengthens a number of important skills that children need in their day to day learning activities.

Puzzles are useful in teaching various subjects. Take geography for example. If the teacher wants her class to learn about the locations of countries she can use custom puzzles that will upon completion form the map of the world. The students will be required to complete the puzzle thereby learning the lesson "practically". Custom puzzles can also be used to teach other subjects apart from geography. For instance, they can be used to teach the parts of the human body, plants, and much more. The advantage of using custom puzzles in this way is that children are more likely to remember what they have learnt because the puzzles are engaging and are usually colorfully designed.

When children are solving custom puzzles for whichever purpose they strengthen a plethora of skills that are important for successful learning. They sharpen their reasoning abilities because they must think before putting each piece of the puzzle in its rightful place. Puzzles present a good opportunity for children to develop spatial awareness and the ability for logical thought. Apart from cognitive skills, solving photo puzzles also helps to develop motor skills because children have to move pieces of the puzzle and place them where they belong. More importantly, children sharpen their eye-hand coordination abilities and which play a great role in day to day activities such as writing, tying shoelaces, and so on.

Many teachers use custom puzzles as group activities whereby a team of children work together on the same puzzle. This is effective in teaching children how to cooperate in pursuit of a common goal. They learn social skills in the process including leadership, negotiation, resolving conflicts and etiquette.

Puzzles are great learning tools because they engage more than one learning modality. There are three learning styles or modalities i.e. visual, auditory and kinesthetic. When solving a puzzle, children rely primarily on the visual modality but also utilize the kinesthetic modality because they have to move various pieces of the puzzle and the auditory modality if they have to communicate among themselves. Educational psychologists recommend such multimodal learning approaches because children benefit more. For all these reasons therefore it is encouraged that teachers include photo puzzles in their collection of teaching aids.