Hello all
We've produced a free 12-page mini puzzle book for primary-aged kids. It's the first in a series and you can download a PDF copy to print out, or I can post you a couple.
You can also print out a certificate with which to award your puzzle-completer (or puzzle-attempter - we have different certificates for both) :)
The puzzles are mostly familiar things like mini sudoku, kriss-kross (filling words into a grid like a crossword but you get the words not clues), working out from clues where something is in a grid, spot the difference so can just be treated as a regular puzzle book... but we've also drawn attention to some of the different strategies you might use to solve a particular type of puzzle, highlighting that computer scientists use similar skills in making sure programs work or in thinking about how to solve something. So it's a computer science puzzle booklet but made from fairly regular puzzles (a person can think like a computer scientist without actually doing something on a computer).
You can get a quick oveview of what's in the booklet from this looping gif I made (using free gifmaker.me).
⬇️ Download the PDF booklet
• View the solutions https://cs4fn.blog/primary-puzzles-1-solutions/
• Print a certificate https://cs4fn.blog/primary-puzzle-books-certificates/
• Bookmark this page for future puzzles https://cs4fn.blog/puzzles/
• 📪 Have me send you 2 free print copies (UK only) https://forms.gle/HXxXJZetuQkDvTSW8 [please note that I'm in the office approx once a week so if you fill the form in after about 7pm today things will get posted next week]
Background
I work at Queen Mary University of London's Computer Science department with Prof Paul Curzon. We work on a project (CS4FN = Computer Science For Fun) that's funded by the EPSRC to do a variety of things, one of which is to produce fun computing-themed resources for teachers and kids. This booklet is one of our outputs. We've distributed about 16,500 free copies to our subscribing schools and home educators in the UK but have some spares to give away at events and I thought parents here might like some.
Jo