These homemade puzzles were easy as can be, and were a huge hit! Although preschoolers might not entirely latch onto the notion of fractions, it’s an easy way to introduce the concept while having fun. Bigger kids can cut their puzzles into increasingly intricate fractions, such as sevenths or eighths.

To start, all you need to do is decorate paper plates with markers. Travis was very intent adding brown dots and brown circles around the rims of the plates.

I added a few decorative elements to each plate so that there would be a recognizable image to form into a puzzle for each.

For a 3 year old, I cut plates into halves, thirds, or fourths.

Travis puzzled over making the four pieces of this one into a full circle for quite some time!

He loved our puzzle that was in thirds, and was so delighted every time he made each paper plate whole again.

A great little morning diversion.