University of Broadford - Puzzle Book Makers

 

Puzzle Book Makers 2026

Ambitious Aims

Each week children will learn how to create their own puzzle books filled with spot the difference, crosswords, sudoku, word searches, rebus puzzles, codebreakers and mazes. Through designing and solving puzzles, they will build literacy skills such as spelling, vocabulary and reading comprehension. Logic-based puzzles support numeracy, reasoning and problem-solving skills. Children will also develop creativity, focus and perseverance as they plan and refine their work. Each child will finish the term with a completed puzzle book they can be proud of. 🧩

Amazing Activities

• Week 1 - Introduction - What sorts of puzzles can we create and what are they?

• Week 2 - Spot the Difference

• Week 3 - Crossword Puzzles

• Week 4 - Sudoku

• Week 5 -Word Search

• Week 6 - Rebus Puzzles

• Week 7 - Codebreaker

• Week 8 - Mazes

• Week 9 - Refining our puzzles, preparing books and quizzing our Puzzle Book Maker friends

• Week 10-  Preparation for our Fantastic Finale

Fantastic Finale

At the end of the course, the children will present their puzzle books to friends and family. They will also be sharing the experiences they have had during the term. 

Course Tutor: Mrs Spoor

Reasoning with Roman Numerals in Year 5

 Reasoning with Roman Numerals in Year 5 

This week Year 5 had wrestled with roman numerals as part of their place value topic in Maths. 

We had recapped from Year 4 and progressed with learning our roman numerals to 1,000. 

We had discovered a mnemonic way to remember the roman numerals, this was… 

I 

Value 

Xylophones 

Like 

Cows 

Do
Milk. 

We even timed ourselves to see how long it took us to order roman numerals. 

“So each one is a mini calculation” - Danny, Redwood 

“If you put the smaller number to the left, it means you have to take it away” - Jaymee, Willow

"I really understand why they use so many letters now." Charlie, Maple

 

Area of leaves

Yesterday afternoon, Acer were working hard in science collecting and finding the area of leaves.

With their mathematical thinking at the ready, the children drew around their leaves onto 1cm squared paper. After counting the number of full squares, the children counted the part squares. Realising that two part squares could make a whole, the kids then halved the number of part squares. With the number of part squares and number of full squares, we added them together to make the are of the leaf. Our maths brains worked out the  equation for the area of the leaf is : F + (P/2) = A.

Year 5 Investigate Thixotropic Substances

Maple have been busy being scientists this afternoon asking questions about solids and liquids. What if something like a gel, toothpaste or sand has a mixture of solid and liquid properties? This is when a substance is called Thixotropic and Maple made their very own substance today. "It looked like a solid but when I moved it, it moved like a liquid," said Drew. 

How could we use this kind of substance in every day life? 

Math Challenges in Palm - Day 2

Year 6 have been completing more math challenges. The children have been working together showing great reciprocity and determination to complete the Katamino and Tangram challenges. 

The Life of Mary Anning

Year 6 have been completing biographies based on the life of Mary Anning. We have found some interesting facts and anecdotes about her life.

Mary Anning's family lived in Lyme Regis and sold 'curiosities' which they Cole

Letter from the beach, on a stall on the seafront.

Mary had a lucky escape when she was a baby, in a thunderstorm, a woman holding Mary was struck by lightening at a fair. The woman holding her died, luckliy Mary survived. 

She was the inspiration for the well-known tongue twister 'She sells seashells on the seashore', which was written by Terry Sullivan in 1908.

In 1811' over a period of months Mary Painstakingly uncovered a near complete skeleton of a 'crocodile'. The specimen was later named Ichthyosaurus. 

Math Challenges in Palm

This morning, Year 6 are completing team math challenge tasks. The tasks started with a multiplication and division learning grid. The children had to create their own number sentences, answer word problems and examine each other's work.

Afterwards, the children had to complete a Mega Block challenge. They were given a 2D picture of a building structure which that had to complete in their teams. However, only 1 person could look at the photo at a time.