Using Befuddlr in the classroom

I am thankful that Kristian Still Twittered me Befuddlr, a great little visual puzzle tool. It takes any online image and produces a slider puzzle that is ideal for working on the IWB. As the creators, Eric Kastner and Amy Hoy put it, “a delightful diversion.”

Give it a try now, if you haven’t before, and you will agree that it is lots of fun and would be a nice little activity for the children to do as a reward or during those wet miserable playtimes! I have set the children a puzzle of solving photos of themselves which they really enjoy. But what else can we do with it?

I think that it forms a lovely lesson starter and below I have outlined some basic ideas for using it across the curriculum. Of course the premise is simple: any image related to your lesson and it’s online – Befuddle it!

To find the images relevant to my ideas I have used FlickCC. Once I have found the image I navigate to the original image on it’s Flickr page and I have then used this (Drag this image to your bookmarks bar) to Befuddle the picture.

Click on the image previews to have a go at the puzzles.

Going beyond the puzzle in Literacy

• Handwritten or word processed text to piece together – topic related.

• Whole texts to help explore the different features

• whole words – focus on the formation of letters
• whole letters – from Flickr

Going beyond the puzzle in Numeracy

• Sequences of numbers
• Written sums to piece together

• Different types of 2D and 3D shapes
• Fractions

• Numbers around us

Going beyond the puzzle in PE

• What sport can you see?

• Images of the children from the previous lesson.

Going beyond the puzzle in History

• Exploring historical places / monuments / sites / artefacts

• Images or portraits of historical figures.
• Putting a timeline back together

• Scenes from ancient period eg. Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece.

Going beyond the puzzle in Geography

• Unscramble a map of countries / continents / the world / local area

• Physical geography images: rivers / coastline / mountains etc

Going beyond the puzzle in RE

• Special places of religious significance – buildings etc
• Befuddle various religious symbols

• Religious artwork
• Artefacts

Going beyond the puzzle in ICT

• Befuddle an image of the keyboard

• Various other parts of hardware to help the children become familiar
• Screenshots of software to encourage the children to get accustomed

Going beyond the puzzle in Science

• Befuddle an image, the image is a clue to the lesson objective (this could be done in every subject) Can you guess this one?

Going beyond the puzzle in Art

• Artwork the children have produced

• To focus on an artist
• Explore a specific style of work eg landscapes.

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Befuddlr works really well when used with a pair or small group on the IWB / SMARTBoard. I have also had success with my class working on a puzzle together using a remote mouse, I have a Gyromouse in my class, passed around the children as they sit at their tables.

Clearly if you were to just leave the children to solve the puzzle it is only that, a simple visual puzzle. However if you couple that with some subject related questions as they are working either linked to what they see or the pieces they are moving, it becomes an engaging learning experience.

You may ask the children if they can guess the shape before it is solved, questions could probe about the different properties of shapes they recognise. Can they explain what shapes it cannot be? What can they see that gives it away? Have they been using the correct mathematical vocabulary etc.

Please let me know of any other ways you have used it to support your subject teaching beyond the puzzle.

Image Attributions

Image: ‘Just How Bad Off is the San Francisco Chronicle?‘
www.flickr.com/photos/49502995517@N01/187465586

Image: ‘handwriting meme‘
www.flickr.com/photos/34427466731@N01/189061818

Image: ‘4½‘
www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00/132872180

Image: ‘2006_02_26 Ireland Vs Wales_0082‘
www.flickr.com/photos/99708130@N00/110637863

Image: ‘9Puy du Fou9 Gladiatorium‘
www.flickr.com/photos/79795657@N00/366074731

Image: ‘Pharaoh9s jewelry‘
www.flickr.com/photos/44124324682@N01/220820

Image: ‘Europe‘
www.flickr.com/photos/80794171@N00/120077777

Image: ‘Lulworth Cove‘
www.flickr.com/photos/19237450@N00/237798413

Image: ‘Om‘
www.flickr.com/photos/43719085@N00/2080321877

Image: ‘Apple Keyboard (ADB)‘
www.flickr.com/photos/71295840@N00/185830828

Image: ‘Dandelion textures‘
www.flickr.com/photos/14516334@N00/1587765712