Cuisenaire Roddles: Games and Puzzles to Measure Thinking Skills

by Sharon
(Leavenworth, Kansas)

Game: These are actually a collection of different games. Each game is a cardstock board to be used with Cuisenaire rods.

Age Levels: This is hard to estimate, but I think children from 3rd grade to 6th grade would get the most out of these games.

Frankly, I did not know where to list this. It could easily be listed as math enrichment. Your kids might think some of these are more like school than games. Then again, some kids think puzzles are games. For that type of child, you could pass this off as a game. Other children would appreciate you listing it honestly as part of your math program.

The learning potential for Roddles is high. These are simply printed, but can be quite challenging. Some are two-player games, some are brain teasers and some are riddles for the child to solve.

For example, the riddle game, Staircase, has a black and white grid with the letters "s" and "f". They stand for "start" and "finish". At the botom of the board, there is a riddle: Here's a path that starts with white (the white rod) and takes ten rods before its right. With every color used this time, this staircase makes a maze sublime. The child must arrange the rods as prescribed on the white squares in the grid and avoid the black-out squares.

Like I said, these can be tricky. These come with a small guide and solutions manual. This is a nice way to add some spice to your Cuisenaire blocks as well as your current math program.