Guest Posted February 17, 2010 Posted February 17, 2010 Hi, At the moment, small puzzles (as in ones with small pieces) are in small zippy bags (the clear bags with coloured strip/zip across top) in a box in one of our toy units. Actually, some of them are also in the same box in small, square plastic sandwich boxes (the 3 for £1 clear ones from Tesco). This is ok to a point, in that the children know where they are and are happy to go and get them from there. They sometimes put them back, after a fair amount of nagging about keeping puzzle pieces with the right puzzle! (They are all colour-coded on the back anyway but it is still irritating that they mix them up!) However, the zippy bags invariably end up with broken zips as the children aren't the most gentle with the zips, which is why I swapped to using the small boxes - though they often think they have put the lids on properly, but once in the main box, lids get knocked off and puzzles mixed up. The large floor puzzles are in a large zippy bags in a huge plastic box in the classroom. Again, the children happily go and get these out, but the bag zips break frequently. So anyway, I know this isn't exactly the world's biggest problem , but I just wondered how you all store your puzzles?! WE do havea lot of them, and some are 'hidden away' and swapped over every now and again, but this year's lot LOVE doing puzzles so I want to find a better way of storing them. Especially as I have just received my new Hungry Caterpillar puzzle which they will think is brilliant! Thanks for reading! purplemagic x
korkycat Posted February 17, 2010 Posted February 17, 2010 Have you thought of press studded plastic wallets instead? We have found them brilliant for all the inset puzzles and small table puzzles. They are mostly around A4 size! They can then be filed upright and are easy to access. Floor puzzles are kept in original boxes and number of pieces written on front so we can count them back in. korkycat
Inge Posted February 17, 2010 Posted February 17, 2010 we too used the pressstud wallets... clear so you could see in them . even box puzzles once the box was so damaged it was easy to cut the front picture off and put in with the puzzle, these seemed to last ages... Inge
diesel10 Posted February 17, 2010 Posted February 17, 2010 Hi This drives me mad as well. In fact enough to spend £40 each on 2 wire racks. I think they were by nathan. But they are brilliant and will last for years. They just sit on to of our baskets drawers and the children can access easily. There is something similar on Amazon for £9.99 but I'm not sure they are as strong. I like the idea of write the number of pieces on the floor puzzle boxes. Thanks. I will start using this next week.
Guest Posted February 17, 2010 Posted February 17, 2010 For some smaller ones I use sticky back magnetic tape and .....black baking tray.In fact I think I could write a book on 1001 ways to use a supermarket value baking tray We also mark the back of the jigsaw pieces with a mark-felt tip colours with simple shapes as we find them easier for the younger ones to sort than numbers.
wellerkaren Posted February 17, 2010 Posted February 17, 2010 go for it Biccy you may become are star
wellerkaren Posted February 17, 2010 Posted February 17, 2010 sorry I still can not get this quote thing
wellerkaren Posted February 17, 2010 Posted February 17, 2010 We are looking for a way to store puzzles as all my children love them also this term. It is one of my pet hates is puzzle without pieces
Rea Posted February 17, 2010 Posted February 17, 2010 We are looking for a way to store puzzles as all my children love them also this term. It is one of my pet hates is puzzle without pieces Like fish without chips! Wilkinsons have small (A5) wallets for 15p each. Think they only do black though.
thumperrabbit Posted February 18, 2010 Posted February 18, 2010 For some smaller ones I use sticky back magnetic tape and .....black baking tray.In fact I think I could write a book on 1001 ways to use a supermarket value baking tray Go for it Biccy I love a bargain - think this could be the start of a new thread!!
Bigsue Posted February 19, 2010 Posted February 19, 2010 Puzzles puzzles puzzles, I hate lost pieces there is nothing worse than nearly finishing and having a piece missing. We have the zip bags and same issues - we put a photo on the bag so they can be identified May look into pop up bags for a4 puzzles anything is worth a try!!! Biccy -'I would buy the book' staff would love it Sue
Guest Posted February 19, 2010 Posted February 19, 2010 Thanks everyone for your replies - also glad it is not just me that has the problem! I have to say, though, that the children are more than capable of putting the puzzles back into the right bags (as they are coded on the backs of the pieces) - they are just rubbish at actually doing it without me being cross/nagging them! It is because they do one puzzle, leave it out finished, get another out, etc, etc - they keep them out as they like leaving them finished (and the Thunderbird ones obviously need to be played with along the floor once all the 'rockets' are complete ). It's just that then when they coming to tidying up it takes ages to sort out as they mix the bits up first!! Anyway, it is lovely that they enjoy doing the puzzles so will try the popper bag things and hopefully they will break less quickly! Thanks again, purplemagic
Susan Posted February 21, 2010 Posted February 21, 2010 I use large plastic table mats or cutting boards as puzzle boards to enable children to do a puzzle and keep it all together and put aside to finish later BUT have the same problem of broken boxes and mixed up puzzle pieces as a result. I have worked on supply in a nursery where each puzzle was in a tray/ drawer in a unit, which seemed to work well and children could easily self select.
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