No Clue Sudoku

Sudoku puzzles are the newest collection of projects made by Second through Fifth grade students in Champaign, Illinois. These projects are easy to make, they take less than an hour, and they are an inexhaustible source of interesting play.

The puzzles use design motifs and colors rather than numbers and are open invitations to explore patterns that follow the rules of Sudoku. Students continued to play with the finished project puzzles they and their classmates had made. Completed puzzles make beautiful screens that invite players to enjoy the patterns they have made.

One goal of my goals as a teacher this year was to have students make Etoys projects that they would return to over and over again. Too much school time is spent on worksheets and Etoys lets children move away from thinking that one-answer-is-right and toward thinking that many-answers-are-possible.

The Library Collection at www.Squeakcmi.org has over eighty Sudoku puzzles. “Making Sudoku” is an Etoys project that includes information about the tools and techniques used in the puzzles for those who have not tried this use of Etoys already.