Name of Activity:. Jigsaw Art

Category:. Show Me

Props: Color copy of child's drawing or painting, glue, poster board to mount drawing, scissors

Your Role: Coach

Directions: Preparation for activity: Choose a drawing or painting that the child had made sometime in the recent past. Make a color copy of the picture and then glue it to the poster board. Cut into large pieces to form a puzzle. Bring original painting or drawing with you when you do the activity. Lay the pieces out for the child and ask the child if they recognize anything about the pieces. The child may or may not realize that the pieces are their own artwork. Then encourage the child to put the puzzle together. Pay close attention to how the child is putting together the pieces. Note if they are using color, lines, shapes, etc. to make the puzzle. Help them and encourage them to keep trying if they get stuck and ask them as they go along if anything looks familiar to them. After awhile they may realize that the picture is theirs. Ask questions along the way about what they see in the puzzle and encourage them to tell you how they are putting the pieces together. When they finish, or if they were stuck from the start, show them the original so they can see what it looked like. This will assure them that you did not cut up their original work and also they might then realize that the puzzle was a copy of their own artwork.

Goals for You: Your focus is on helping and encouraging the child to persist through the puzzle. Also to note the ways in which the child is putting together the puzzle pieces.

Goals for Children: To try and recall their own artwork, which is in pieces, and to be able to put it back together. If they are unable to do this from the start, they should try to use color, lines, shape, etc. successfully to put together a puzzle that they believe to have never seen before

Possible Strategy:

What to say "Do you like putting together puzzles? You do, great. I have one right here for you to put together, would you like to do that? You would, good, let's get started. Here's the puzzle, do any of these pieces look familiar? They don't, OK, let's just try to put it together. Why don't you pick a piece to start with and see if you can find another piece that you think fits next to it."

What to do Encourage the child to keep trying to put the puzzle together even if they get stuck. Help them, but not too much. If they are not noticing a pattern or something that would help them, point it out, but do not do the puzzle for them. Make sure to note all of the strategies that the child uses. Pay close attention and question every so often as to whether or not anything is looking familiar to them. The child may or may not recognize anything, do not be discouraged by this. If the child gets totally stuck, show them the original and then see if they can put it together.

Possible Shaping:

What to say "Do these two pieces have anything in common? How about these, do these look familiar? Look back in your mind, do you remember ever seeing these before?"

What to do: Encourage the child to match by colors or shapes even if it is not exactly how the puzzle fits together, you can worry about that later. Also try to subtly make them believe that they should have seen these pieces before. It will make them try and remember their past and things that they have created. From this you may be able to learn something about how they store past experiences and their own artwork and other creations.

Possible Ending:

What to say: "Great job. See how much fun it is to recreate one of your own pictures. I bet you have never done a puzzle like this before."

What to do: .

Material on this site created by Helane S. Rosenberg, Ph.D. and Yakov M. Epstein, Ph.D. in conjunction with their forthcoming book titled Play for Success. All material on this site is copyrighted and may not be reproduced or cited without written permission of Helane S. Rosenberg, Ph.D.. Dr. Rosenberg is Associate Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education of Rutgers-The State University, New Brunswick, NJ. Dr. Epstein is Professor of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts and Science of Rutgers-The State University, New Brunswick, NJ. He is also Director of the Center for Mathematics, Science, and Computer Education of Rutgers University.

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