Tangrams: Challenging Visual Problem Solving

Our 1st and 2nd graders are wrapping up a unit on visual-spatial reasoning with a lesson on tangrams--an ancient geometrical puzzle and storytelling tool comprised of 7 pieces. The video below introduces their origin.



OK, so that's not the actual origin of trangrams, but it is an excellent introduction. In class we manipulated physical tangrams, but there are some nice websites with tangram activities too:
Matter - Online Tangram Puzzles
PBS Kids - Sagwa Tangram Games

Think a 7-piece puzzle sounds too easy? Think again!

Chasing Vermeer Activities

Our 4th graders have been working through the intriguing novel Chasing Vermeer, which is full of unexplained occurences, art history, codes, mystery and a special geometrical problem solving tool called pentominoes. The site below contains several online activities related to the novel which will keep their brains busy on the novel and its intricate pieces even while not in QUEST.

Chasing Vermeer Online Activities

Build Verbal Reasoning Skills with Quiddler

I recently posted a link to an excellent online "game" for building non verbal reasoning skills called SET. The same game publishers also have a superb game for building verbal reasoning and fluency called Quiddler. The game sounds simple--build 3 and 4-letter words with available cards to earn points. In practice, though, it's a lot more challenging. In fact, I highly recommend having a dictionary handy!


Just as with SET, there is an online Quiddler puzzle that refreshes daily. The site also includes a printable "worksheet" version of each daily puzzle.

Build Non Verbal Reasoning Skills with "SET"

I am asked quite often by parents what they can do to help students build non verbal reasoning skills, such as those tested on the CogAT. One of the most powerful ways to exercise the "thinking muscle" involved in non verbal analysis and logic is a game called "SET." SET inolves using attributes (another key concept of the QUEST curriculum) to sort cards into groups ("sets") of 3 cards.

The rules of what makes up a set are both extremely simple and very intricate and subtle. The good news is we've been playing it as a warm-up exercise in class recently so your child should know! And even better news, your child (and you) can get a free non verbal workout everyday on the SET Daily Puzzle website. Each day they refresh the page with a new SET challenge.

I HIGHLY recommend encouraging your child to visit it regularly to build up those dendrites and synaptic connections involved in complex non verbal logic and reasoning.

P.S. I'll also include a permanent link to the SET Daily Puzzle on the Games and Stimulation page of the website.

The Fish Puzzle: Another Lesson in Persistence

When Christie 2nd grader Carrington saw a "cute little fish puzzle" in the QUEST room one day and started playing around with it, she didn't realize she was about begin a multi-week battle that would require all her patience, logic and visual problem solving skill!


On the surface it seems like an innocent little 9 piece puzzle that might take a preschooler 2 minutes. It is designed, however, to push you to your limits! Most students, and adults, realize how tough it is after just a few minutes, then set it aside for something a little less "impossible." Carrington challenged this impulse, however, and declared that she was definitely going to solve it!

A few weeks (and many hours of her holiday break) later, she had done it.  

Congratulations, Carrington! Thanks for reminding us of this quote by Christopher Reeve (the original "Super Man"):

“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable,

and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.” 

iPad Apps for Code/Cipher Practice

I have personally "played around" with each of these and think they would be worthwile additions to your iPad app library:

NSA Crypto
CryptoSolve
CLUE Secrets and Spies
CryptoQuip