At first glance, sudoku puzzles may not appear to be an appropriate activity for kids, but they actually ARE a fascinating and enjoyable pastime for kids of all ages. Although it appears that highly developed math and logic skills are required to complete puzzles, in reality very little skill is required. Kids just have to be willing to learn the simple strategy, think creatively and give it a go.

Sudoku puzzles are a great activity to introduce to your students, no matter what their age or ability. The uses of these puzzles in the classroom is truly only limited by your imagination. 

Sudoku puzzles are a brilliant activity which can be done individually or as a whole class group. 

One way of using sudoku with the class as a whole is to project the puzzles onto a whiteboard and allow kids to offer answers one by one. This could also be done in small groups as a team building exercise. 

Another great idea is to have a sudoku tournament within the class. Choose two children to begin with and have them stand at the front of the class either side of a sudoku puzzle, either projected onto a whiteboard or drawn onto a blackboard. Taking it in turns, each child is given 30 seconds to come up with the correct numeral for one empty space. If a child is unable to produce an answer, they sit down with the rest of the class and another student takes their place. The child who provides the most correct answers, in a row, for the day is the winner. This can be continued over many days or even weeks.

Sudoku puzzles can be given out individually to students to use as a time-filling activity for those awkward in between times of the day, or for when children finish the assigned work early.

When children come back to the classroom after lunch, give them ten minutes to work on sudoku puzzles as a way to calm them down after a playful and energetic break.

Save the dreary, boring homework for the weeknights and over the weekend assign a sudoku puzzle to be completed instead. Kids will still be learning and developing math and logic skills but will see the homework as an enjoyable exercise rather than a bore.

Sudoku puzzles are also very handy for those days it’s just too wet for kids to play outside during breaks. These puzzles will make indoor play time a breeze for you, and still enjoyable for the students. 

Sudoku puzzles for kids are readily available online. Downloadable products are the easiest to use as they can be saved to your own computer and accessed when required. You can print one or two puzzles as at a time or print off a whole stack to have them ready to go when needed. Even better, is that puzzles can be printed back to back and in draft or gray-scale to reduce printing and environmental costs.  

As previously mentioned the uses of sudoku puzzles in the classroom truly are limited only by the imagination. Be creative and encourage students to come up with their own ways of using sudoku puzzles. 

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/childhood-education-articles/uses-of-sudoku-puzzles-for-kids-in-the-classroom-2104288.html

About the Author

Brooke Watson uses Sudoku puzzles with kids to help them develop problem

solving skills, logical thinking and creativity while they have fun. She has

created a collection of sudoku number puzzles and word puzzles for children at

www.kids-sudoku-puzzles.com

About Sudoku

Also known as Number Place, Sudoku is a logic-based placement puzzle. The puzzle is composed of a 9 x 9 grid which is further divided into nine 3 x 3 sub-grids or also known as regions. Before you start completing the puzzle, you are given some cells that are initially filled up with numbers from 1 to 9 (number of cells initially filled-up depends on the difficulty level of the puzzle).

The main objective of this game is to completely fill-up all the remaining vacant cells with the numbers 1 to 9 provided that you adhere to the “single number per direction” rule of the game. That is, every column, row, and sub-grid (which is referred to as the direction) must contain only one instance of each number. For instance, you have an initially-placed number 5 at the 5th column and on the 7th row of the puzzle. Such number must only appear once on that particular column and row. Furthermore, it must also appear only once on its assigned sub-grid or region.

Print a Sudoku

Because of the complexity of the “single number per direction” rule of Sudoku, many beginners are having a hard time completing it in matter of a single day. That is why most Sudoku beginners are encouraged to have a hard copy of a Sudoku puzzle so that they can spend more time solving it without actually logging on their personal computer.

Even easy puzzles are difficult to complete, so it would be impractical if you will be solving it in front of your computer especially if you are playing a Sudoku puzzle online. A printed Sudoku puzzle is advisable for Sudoku players especially for beginners.

All you have to do is to locate Sudoku sites that offer printable Sudoku puzzles through search engines. Download it in your personal computer. After download, you can now print and produce more copies so that other family members can get involve in solving Sudoku puzzles.

Most of downloadable Sudoku puzzles are on PDF format. Your computer must have an Acrobat Reader software in order to display it correctly. In case you do not have an Acrobat Reader, you can download it for free on the Internet.

Here are some of the common versions of Sudoku puzzles which you can download from the Internet and print in your personal computer.

•  Classic Sudoku- this is the regular Sudoku puzzle that is described earlier in this article. It features varying levels of complexity that will attest your patience and determination in completing it. You can also have the strategies and hints as well as the solution to be downloaded and printed for immediate reference.

•  Monster Sudoku- it is quite different from the classic Sudoku game. It is made up of a 16 x 16 grid (instead of the normal 9 x 9 grid), 4 x 4 sub-grids (instead of the 3 x 3 sub-grids), and 256 cells. In addition, the mechanics are now different. In a standard Sudoku puzzle, you will only be placing the numbers 1 to 9 for the remaining unfilled cells. In a Monster Sudoku, you will now place numbers form 1 to 16 and letters from A to F in each cell, column, row, and 4 x 4 sub-grids. However, the same rules as the classic Sudoku game still apply on the Monster Sudoku.

•  Kids Sudoku- it is a puzzle designed for kids of age above seven years old to develop their logic skills and at the same time having fun solving the puzzle. This type of puzzle is very easy compared to the intermediate Sudoku puzzle.

•  Squiggly Sudoku- the same mechanics and rules as the classic Sudoku puzzle still apply in this game. The only difference is instead of a grid, it is now divided into 9 different shapes.

Aside from individual Sudoku puzzles, there are also free printable Sudoku books on the Web. It contains at least 25 puzzles per book which is classified as easy and medium difficulty puzzles. These free printable Sudoku books are in PDF format so you need to have Acrobat Reader software in your personal computer.

Test your logic and number skills now and start printing hard copies of Sudoku puzzles for you and other family members.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/hobbies-articles/printable-sudoku-indulge-your-puzzle-playing-passion-1383617.html

About the Author

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