Don’t Get Stung Puzzle
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Today I’m excited to share with you the Don’t Get Stung Puzzle. Most of today has been spent administering the ACT. Normally, I have lunch right after 3rd hour. Today, we tested straight through lunch.
And, I didn’t get to sit down and eat my lunch until 6th hour. Needless to say, I am worn out! How is it that watching my students take a standardized test is at least twice as tiring as teaching a full day of math?!?
Since I don’t have the energy to do actual school stuff like grading papers this evening, I guess I will share the file for this week’s puzzle on the puzzle table. Like last week’s emoji-themed puzzle, this puzzle was published in The Big, Big, Big Book of Brainteasers by The Grabarchuk Family.
If you want to invest in just one puzzle book for your classroom, this is the perfect book to start with. It is jam-packed with 567 different puzzles! Want a sneak-peek at the puzzles featured in the book? Amazon’s Look Inside Feature lets you look at quite a few of the puzzles in The Big, Big, Big Book of Brainteasers for free.
This Don’t Get Stung puzzle was a bit more complicated than the puzzles I normally type up out of my collection of puzzle books. But, once I made a hexagon template, it wasn’t too tricky to make the pieces.
This is the first puzzle I have placed on the puzzle table that allows you to overlap pieces.
In fact, this puzzle requires the overlapping of pieces. See all those bees? The final solution to this puzzle will have all of the bees hidden. Additionally, no shape can be repeated in any row in any of the three directions.
The Don’t Get Stung puzzle has got a bunch of attention from my students. Some students who never spend time at the puzzle table were asking about how the puzzle worked.
I think this puzzle has a certain visual appeal to it that sucks students into the problem-solving process.
Check out this awesome collaboration from students. There was a whole group gathered around the table on Monday in my chemistry class.
Free Download of Don’t Get Stung Puzzle
Click here to Download
Don’t Get Stung Puzzle Game Board 11 x 17 (PDF)
3615 downloads – 90.14 KB
Click here to Download
Don’t Get Stung Puzzle Pieces 8.5 x 11 (PDF)
3681 downloads – 29.42 KB
Click here to Download
Don’t Get Stung Puzzle (Editable Publisher File ZIP)
2133 downloads – 223.31 KB
The Don’t Get Stung puzzle board is designed to print on 11 x 17 cardstock. The puzzle pieces are designed to print on 8.5 x 11 paper.
If you would prefer to print everything on letter-sized paper, you can print all of the pages at 65% scale. Don’t forget to also print the puzzle pieces at 65% scale!
Puzzle Solutions
Puzzle solutions are available on a password-protected solution page. I do not openly post the puzzle answer keys because one of my goals as a resource creator is to craft learning experiences for students that are non-google-able. I want teachers to be able to use these puzzles in their classrooms without the solutions being found easily on the Internet.
Please email me at sarah@mathequalslove.net for the password to the answer key database featuring all of my printable puzzles and math worksheets. I frequently have students emailing me for the answer key, so please specify in your email what school you teach at and what subjects you teach. If you do not provide these details, I will not be able to send you the password.
Not a teacher? Go ahead and send me an email as well. Just let me know what you are using the puzzles for. I am continually in awe of how many people are using these puzzles with scouting groups, with senior adults battling dementia, or as fun activities in their workplace. Just give me enough details so I know you are not a student looking for answers to the puzzle that was assigned as their homework!
Do you have the answer to this problem??
Can you clarify "the three directions"? Is it straight across, then slightly diagonal to the left, then slightly diagonal to the right? Does that mean some rows will have only a couple shapes in them?
same question as Erica about the 3 directions? my kiddos are trying so hard to solve this one…so far no one has. this is a real brain bender this one. its been great watching them working through the different combinations, trying to find the solution. some getting really frustrated but persisting in trying to find the answer