Puzzle Pieces

Using individual puzzle pieces allows students to create a personal art form that gains even more strength and power when connected with the pieces of others.

Maine Adult Education teacher Ronda Alley facilitated a puzzle project as a way to help students display their knowledge of emerging subject matter. Ronda gave each student a 20" by 20" wooden puzzle piece to illustrate, then connected the pieces in a wall mural. For more information about this project, see the Seven Habits Puzzle Pieces lesson plan.

Project Hope, inspired by Ronda's use of puzzles, adapted the idea for their own purposes. Each of the students in the Women of Strength class was given a puzzle piece to illustrate her name and personal qualities. The puzzle was also used as a form of prewriting. At a final event for the project, students read aloud from their pieces and displayed their puzzle art, then the pieces were combined as a wall display. Take a look at the photo montage of Project Hope's puzzle project (PowerPoint).

A note about practical matters: We were able to order the wooden puzzle pieces through a company in Vermont called Maple Landmark. They had already cut a die pattern for the puzzle pieces from a previous project, so we saved a great deal by using the existing pattern.