Make your own jigsaw puzzle
You’ll need
- Jigsaw puzzle template
- Thin cardboard, such as cereal boxes
- Pencil
- Eraser
- Felt tip pens
- Colouring pencils
- Scissors
- Laminator (optional)
- A4 laminating pouches (optional)
Before you begin
- Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
- Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
- Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help.
Running this activity
- Gather everyone around and ask if anyone’s ever completed a jigsaw puzzle.
- Explain that John Spilsbury created the first jigsaw puzzle in 1767 to help teach children about countries. He took a map and glued it onto a piece of wood, then cut it into small pieces along the borders of the countries. The idea was to teach children geography by having them reassemble the pieces of the map.
- Tell everyone they’re going to make their own jigsaw about something they like or want to teach other people about.
- Give everyone a jigsaw puzzle template. They could also use a blank piece of paper and draw their own jigsaw puzzle piece shapes.
- When people have finished their design, they should glue it onto thin cardboard, such as one side of a cereal box.
- Next, carefully cut out the jigsaw pieces using scissors as accurately as possible.
- Once everyone has cut up their jigsaw, they can swap their puzzles with someone else and see if they can solve it.
Reflection
This activity was all about making our own jigsaw puzzles. We got to design a puzzle about something we like or want to teach others. What did you do? How did you make it fun to look at? Did you add anything to trick people or to make your puzzle harder? Swapping puzzles with friends made it even more exciting because we got to solve each other’s creations. Did any pieces get mixed up? Was it easy or hard to put them back together? What else could we turn into a puzzle to help others learn, such as the Scout Promise?
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.
- Scissors
Supervise young people appropriately when they’re using scissors. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.
Make it accessible
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
If you enjoyed this activity, you could have a competition and see which team could solve a jigsaw in the quickest time. You could also make a puzzle for the Scout Promise to help you remember it.