Halloween Sudoku puzzle with pictures of Pumpkins
Story

Halloween Suduko Puzzle: Grids and Tables

Create your own Suduko puzzles and use these fun puzzles to teach tech skills!

Suduko is a fun puzzle that lets kids use their logical reasoning and critical thinking skills. Suduko puzzles are traditionally numbers; however, any pictures or words can be turned into Suduko puzzles! Here is a fun print Halloween Suduko, kids cut and glue pictures into the puzzle. A pumpkin, ghost, candy, and bat must appear once and only once in each row, column, and block.

This Halloween Suduko puzzle has been modified to be accessible on the iPad for students who are blind. Suduko is basically a grid – a table without headers. Suduko puzzles are a wonderful way to teach students who use screen readers how to navigate grids and tables using a screen reader.

Navigating a Grid/Table with VoiceOver

Here are the directions for navigating and completing the Halloween Suduko Puzzle in the Pages app on the iPad with VoiceOver:

Teacher Hint: Make sure that the student LISTEN to the VoiceOver hint about row numbers and column names. This will help your student learn the spatial relationship of the grid. (If the student right swipes without listening to the VoiceOver hints, he/she does not know when VoiceOver has moved to the next row or column – spatially, the student thinks the cells are all in one long line.) For students who do not yet have a good mental model of a table, teach the student to drag his/her finger – in a straight line – across the row or down the column. The student should carefully listen to the VoiceOver hints, as VoiceOver announces either the new row or the new column, depending on which way the student drags his/her finger. This announcement will alert the student if he/she has accidently dragged down and not in a straight line across the row.  For efficient table navigation, the student should use swipes (or arrow keys on a Bluetooth keyboard or braille display.

Accessible Halloween Sudoku puzzle - a table created in pages with the words, ghost, pumpkin, candy and bat.

Create an Accessible Suduko puzzle

To create an accessible table on the iPad;

If a student is just learning about grids/tables, create a tactile grid first. Use sticky-backed foam shapes (star, circle, square, triangle) and create a simple Suduko puzzle. Create the same puzzle on the iPad. Teach the grid/table concepts with the tactile puzzle, then transition to the digital puzzle.

Go to Education.com for the colorful print version of the Halloween Suduko puzzle.

Unfortunately, the formatting is lost when I tried to upload the accessible Pages document to the Paths to Technology website. You will have to create your own, following the steps listed above. The Pages screenshot above shows the accessible version with the words – pumpkin, ghost, candy and bat – instead of pictures.  (Note: The grid lines did not show up in the screenshot above; however, in Pages, the table’s grid lines are visable.)

Do you have a student using a computer? Create your own Suduko tables in Word! Here is a post about creating accessible Word tables.

Want to know more about digital grids and tables? Go to Digital Transitions post.

Want a tactile version? Go to Halloween Suduko Part 2: Tactile Graphics post.

Want to learn how to use Sudoku puzzles to improve logical thinking skills? Go to the Snowman Suduko: Logical Thinking post.

By Diane Brauner

Back to Paths to Technology’s Home page

Halloween Sudoko collage

By Diane Brauner

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
APH's Crossword puzzle logo and text
News

APH Accessible Crossword Puzzle App Review

Article

Halloween Suduko Part 2: Tactile Graphics

Block from the periodic table: Sulfur, "S", 16 on a gold background.
Guide

Accessible periodic tables for low vision