JigSaw Planet Puzzle Fun Slice of Life

Looking for a creative way to post an image with a Slice of Life story this March?

Wait. What?

What is Slice of Life?

Slice of Life in March is the challenge by The Two Writing Teachers to write a slice of your life every day in the month of March. A moment in time– a laugh, a remembrance, a moment of an event.

My students loved every Tuesday and every day in March because that was the day they’d rush into the classroom, often digging into their bags for a story they’d written the night before, or dashing to the computers to open their Google Drive to start writing about the play they’d made in basketball at last night’s game. Their writing; their way; their style.

And their chance to apply all the writing strategies we’d learned. I’d ask them to choose at least one strategy and identify it just below their “Slice of Life.”

And the JigSaw Puzzle?

While browsing through Edublog’s Resource Page, I found 50 New Blog Post Ideas for Students which included a link to JigSawPlanet.

Things to Know:

  • Students UNDER AGE 13 should NOT use the site according to their Terms of Use .
  • Sign In is not required so students over 13 can just create one without signing up or signing in.
  • Use any photo without people or identifying places since they retain the rights and keep the photo on their site. If you notice the cat picture at the top of the page, I’ve cropped it to just show the cat on the steps by the snow.
  • Or choose Creative Commons images that match the ideas in the post. I should have done that.
  • If the unanimous images/puzzles are not used within six months, they will be removed — so keep the original image in the post so it retains its interest and focus point.

As students choose their topic and find photos usable according to expectations, they can add interest to their blog with a puzzle.

Student Directions:

A blog post option is to write a “Slice of Life”– a moment in time as it happened, but changing the names and places, of course, to eliminate personal information.

A Slice of Life is to:

describe everyday experiences with as much realism as possible.

~ The Two Writing Teachers

Write your Slice of Life story in your post.

Choose an image from Creative Commons choices provided by your teacher. [Suggestions here].

Upload image to your blog post.

Upload image at JigSawPlanet to create a puzzle and copy the “Game” code. Paste the “Game” code in the “text” tab of the editor, rather than the usual “visual” tab.

Credit your image and also link to your JigSawPlanet URL.

Add a “Writing Strategies” example at the end of your post: What strategy did you use? Where is the strategy in your writing? See example below. Note the bold and italicized writing strategy examples.


Example Slice of Life Post

Winter Kitten


A winter kitten, this wild one has cabin fever. She races through the house, back and forth, up onto the couch, diving back onto the floor and under the table. Round and round she spins through the house, a blur!

This is her first real outing, daring to walk down the steps with snow now shoveled, peeking up to peer at any one or any thing within view, then crunching small again to hide, her ears twitching all around to hear all the sounds of possible prey or predator.

A car engine revs its motor,  and she darts back up to crouch by the front door, ready to go back inside.

Winter kitten, purrs inside.

 

 

Kitty Outside [Link]
preview36 pieceKittyoutside

[Embed code above]

[Game code below]


Writing Strategy:

Strong Verbs: races, diving, spins, daring, shoveled, peeking, peer, crunching, twitching, revs, darts, crouch, purrs

Alliterationpossible prey or predator.

Credits:

Photo by Sheri

Puzzle created at JigSawPlanet