Nothing new here I hear you cry...Mrs Hanigan with a puzzled brain! There was a good reason for it today, as fourteen children from our Early Years and infant department, came together with ten children from Ingol County Primary School, to take part in a fun morning, looking at our brain, how we can keep it healthy, how we use it and giving it a workout!

The children worked in teams to complete the five challenges, all puzzling our brains in different ways. When they completed a task, or had a really good try, they got a stamp on their passport. The different activities were: 

  • Puzzle 1 - Words, words, words. Here the children had to complete a word search and try to make up as many words as they could from the Boggle letters.
  • Puzzle 2 - Triangle numbers and picture Sudoku. The group had to solve the number triangle, place the numbers 1-6 around the triangle, so that each side (with three numbers), added up to 9. Could they complete the picture Sudoku? Each square, row and line was only allowed to have one star, one square, one circle and one triangle.
  • Puzzle 3 - Tangram. Could they arrange the seven shapes to create a large square...this was much harder than it looked!
  • Puzzle 4 - Water Challenges. Could they get the goat, the wolf and the cabbages across the river safely? Only one thing in the boat at a time and some things could not be left together...the goat would eat the cabbage and the wolf would eat the goat! How would you do it? The other water challenge was three green frogs and three brown frogs...can you cross them over the lily pads to the opposite side? Each coloured frog had to take turns and a frog could only jump onto an adjacent lily pad or over another frog...not easy at all!
  • Puzzle 5 - Code breaking. Could they use the chart to work out the word, using the co-ordinates?  Could they work out the sentence, using the code?  Only one group managed the full sentence!

The children all had a lovely time and made their brains work really hard. They got a well-deserved drink of juice, a biscuit and a certificate, as well as meeting other children and working really hard. 

The Pool House children who took part, were:

  • Hannah
  • Lillie
  • Hope
  • Noah
  • Lucy
  • Toby
  • Elle
  • Joshua
  • Gabriella
  • Dylan
  • Ellie
  • Emily
  • Kyle
  • Jehanna

Take a look at the photographs in the gallery.

A group of year 6 children have also worked incredibly hard in analysing  the Poem: 'The Highwayman' by Alfred Noyes. They have made a start on writing their own epic poem, using Noyes' poem as their inspiration.

The challenge this week, is a puzzle-related challenge.

Cards Facing Up

A blind-folded man is handed a deck of 52 cards and told that exactly 10 of these cards are facing up.

He is asked to divide those cards into two piles, each with the same number of cards facing up.

He can't peek, get help, or damage the cards, but may use any strategy that occurs to him to do so.

How can he do it?

Check out your answer at: https://www.mathsisfun.com/puzzles/cards-facing-up.html 

Have fun and enjoy!