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PUZZLES
ARE SYSTEMS
Purpose
To introduce as simply as possible the basic idea of parts fitting together
to make a whole or a system.
Areas of Study
Language Arts (oral communications)
Mathematics (matching, spatial relationships)
Objectives
Given two sets of puzzle pieces (one set in which all the pieces fit as
a whole and the other set with missing or mismatched pieces), students will:
Identify when a set fits together to make a whole system and when it does
not. State in their own words what makes one puzzle a system and the other
puzzle not a system.
Suggested Time
1 or 2 periods
Materials
A variety of easy picture puzzles, paper bags or envelopes
Comments to the Teacher
Puzzles can be easily made by cutting out a magazine picture and shaping
puzzle pieces out of it. Greeting cards and picture postcards can be used
as well. Children can make their own puzzle by drawing or painting on
a piece of thin cardboard and cutting it into puzzle pieces.
Activity
Group children into partners and give each pair two bags of puzzle pieces,
with Bag 1 containing a matched puzzle and Bag 2 containing a mismatched
or incomplete puzzle.
Tell each pair of children to try to make a whole puzzle from each separate
bag (to avoid mixing pieces between the two bags and causing confusion
and frustration, you might color-code the pieces of each puzzle or hand
out only one bag at a time).
Have children identify which bag or which set of puzzle pieces made a
whole puzzle and which did not.
Encourage each child to tell why one set of pieces fit into a whole puzzle
and why the other did not, reinforcing such words as parts, whole, fit
together, connected, or other words that indicate understanding for your
age of students. These will become the basic vocabulary of systems learning,
while the growing verbalization of what happened and why (a form of debriefing
at the primary level) will continue to be the most important part of each
lesson as children come together to share experiences and feelings, to
discuss insights, and to learn and use new vocabulary labels.
Inform the children that each of their completed puzzles is a "system,"
explaining that this is so because the parts fit together or are connected
together as a whole. Make sure you also indicate that their incomplete
puzzles are not systems because they do not fit together as a whole. With
older students, you might be able to explain that one missing or mismatched
piece affects the whole puzzle, and that care of each piece of the puzzle
is important to the whole (this last being a good way to lead to more
careful cleanup of puzzles).
Although it is probably too early to introduce any one or all of these
expanded definitions of systems, keep them in mind and apply them as they
fit. Perhaps you can use them with individual students who are thinking
way ahead of the others or by building on a child's relevant comment (for
example, if some child complains about puzzle pieces always being lost
or mixed up, as in Bag 2, it might be a good time to discuss how one missing
part can ruin the whole and why it is so important to care for each piece
when using or putting away puzzles).
Use this idea of caring for each part as you tell children to clean up
their puzzles carefully. Bag 1's completed puzzle can either be returned
to the bag (and children who can write print SYSTEM in huge letters on
the bag as another way to reinforce learning of this new word), or the
completed puzzles can be moved to a table or bulletin board for display
under the heading SYSTEMS. Bag 2's pieces can simply be returned to the
bag with a quick review of why this bag won't be labeled SYSTEM.
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