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Photo Shapes Puzzle


I was inspired by Pink and Green Mama with her Homemade Christmas Gift. I used this Shapes Photo Puzzle to lure my sleep fighting 2 years old in to the bedroom for their naptime. It's hard to get them in the bathroom and it's harder to get them in the bedroom as they know it's going to be sleep after books. So, again, I had to crack my brain to think of ways to lure them in. This was really easy and I finished it when they were in school.

I did it a bit differently. It was not meant to be a gift and I want to be able to use the puzzle again. So, I laminated the photos. I did the first version just using paper though.

What You Need:
A Shape Puzzle
Photos of family members
Laminator (optional, just print on card stock if you don't have one)

Method:
  1. Find portraits of family members.
  2. Resize accordingly and print them.
  3. Laminate.
  4. Use the shapes to trace the photos for the puzzle holes.
  5. Cut 
  6. Put them in the puzzle and cover with the inset.
I played Peeka-Boo with them with the puzzle and they were so surprised to see photos of family members in them! They were thrilled! And we had a lot of fun. Here are variations to add some learning elements to this.
  • Play Memory Games 
- After showing them a round of the photos, I put all the insets back and ask them who is behind each shape. They got them all correct!
  • Photo Hunt
- I asked them where is Papa and they are supposed to pick up the inset to reveal the photo under it.
  • Put the photos back
- This was by accident and they were giggling so much over it. One of the photos fell out and they were laughing and shouting "Mummy fall out!" and they went on to make all the other people "fall". To make it "educational", I made them tell me what shape the family member fell from. And after taking them all out, I asked that they put them back to the respective shapes and name them. So, it's "Popo in an oval" and "Kor Kor in a square", etc.

What I like about not sticking the photos on the puzzles is that I can always change them and change the sequence for more memory games and keep the interest high.
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