Sleepy Hollow Middle School 6th grade class co-creates Jumble Puzzle

Sleepy Hollow Middle School's 6th-grade English class collaborated with David L. Hoyt, the world's #1 daily word game maker, to create a unique and engaging learning experience called "Learning Through Play."

The "Learning Through Play" FLEX class, run by English teacher Kirk Dietz, incorporates several of Mr. Hoyt's puzzles and games. The partnership was born in 2016 when Mr. Dietz contacted Mr. Hoyt and informed him that he was using his puzzles in the classroom to teach students puns, nuances in speech, and figurative language.

Mr. Hoyt was thrilled by this and worked with Mr. Dietz to design the "Learning Through Play" class to help students with the "4-C's": Critical thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, and Communication." Skills that they feel are beneficial to succeed in today’s world.

“It was so much fun to team up with Mr. Dietz and his students. This event was unique in that we collaborated with the students on every aspect of the Jumble puzzle; the answer, the cartoon, the circled letters, the scrambled letters, etc. Together, we made a great puzzle that will be played and enjoyed by millions of people worldwide,” said Mr. Hoyt. “It was a real team effort. Collaboration can be difficult for some people, especially students, so I'm always happy when I can be a part of something that encourages collaboration. I look forward to more collaboration with Mr. Dietz and his awesome students going forward.”

This year, students participated in a special Jumble event where Mr. Hoyt and his Jumble cartoonist partner, Jeff Knurek, received input from students to create a Jumble puzzle live via Google Meet. Not only did the students get to come up with the "play on words" for the puzzle answer, but they also provided input to Mr. Knurek as he drew the cartoon.

“I'm not really used to people watching me draw the Jumble, so having this wonderful class watch what I do every day was a thrill,” said Mr. Knurek. “It's not until you have people watch you draw do you realize that people find it magical to have someone create a scene in front of them. To have the drawing be inspired by Mr. Dietz's great Jumble puzzle idea made it even more magical.”

Students were thrilled to see their ideas come to life as they watched the illustrations drawn in front of them. The puzzle appeared in approximately 650 newspapers for millions of puzzle enthusiasts to enjoy.

“It was a wonderful experience to take part in the puzzle with David. The students were able to witness David and Jeff's collaboration in real-time, which was fascinating,” said Mr. Dietz. “This experience has taught the students valuable lessons about communication and collaboration to achieve a shared goal.”