Color Rectangle Puzzle
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I’m hoping that this Color Rectangle Puzzle will delight many puzzle solvers for years to come. One of the very first puzzles I ever put out on my first ever puzzle table back in 2017 was Donald Knuth’s Color Square Puzzle.
This puzzle is very similar, but instead of forming a square you are forming a rectangle.
Arrange the twelve colored pieces into the rectangle below so that no pieces of the same color touch each other, not even at corners. You can rotate pieces and flip them over, but you can not allow any of the pieces to overlap.
In 2018, I ran across the Color Rectangle puzzle. I typed it up, but in the craziness of teaching while pregnant followed by teaching while parenting a young baby followed by teaching while in a pandemic I never actually ended up printing out the puzzle.
I finally got around to printing it this year during our back-to-school prep days when I was printing a few other new resources for my classroom.
The Color Rectangle Puzzle was created by Donald Knuth, and it was featured in one of the puzzle books that got me addicted to using puzzles in my classroom with students: Puzzle Box, Volume 3.
The printable file will actually contain enough pieces for TWO puzzles.
Free Download of Color Rectangle Puzzle
Previously, there was a major error in the downloadable file I shared. It has now been corrected. I apologize for any confusion/frustration this caused!
Click here to Download
Color Rectangle Puzzle – 8.5 x 11 (PDF – ZIP)
3080 downloads – 181.13 KB
Want more puzzles? Check out my entire collection of free printable puzzles!
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!
Thank you! I love your puzzles. I’m wondering… Is the straight orange piece supposed to be one unit longer? All the pieces should contain 5 unit squares, correct? 🙂
It is! I have taken down the files so I can fix it. Thank you for pointing out my mistake.
Do the pieces fit for either puzzle? I don’t see puzzle pieces for the letter size version. Only the 11×17 version.
Hi Mary! I actually have had to take the pieces down because there was a mistake in them. I will repost the corrected version and make sure that I have puzzle pieces for both sizes clearly labeled when I do so. Sorry for the confusion!
Hi my students are doing the color rectangle in class today. They are coming up with an empty box when solved. Do you know if there is an error on the pieces?
Hi Kelly! I’m so sorry about this. Someone else also emailed me to let me know that the rectangle that is four boxes long is actually supposed to be five boxes long. I apologize for the frustration that this must have caused your students. I have taken the download down temporarily so I can fix it. I will re-upload it with the correct pieces soon. Sorry, sorry, sorry!
Are the pieces supposed to fit within the rectangle and on the grid? I printed out the 8.5×11 one and it didn’t seem to fit.
Hi Jesse. They are supposed to fit, but there was an error when I made the file. I have removed the download, and I am in the process of correcting it. Sorry for the confusion. I will update the post when I have the new files available.
Can you show us the answer? We are having a very hard time figuring it out and I’d like to give my kids a hint.
There’s actually a mistake in the pieces – one of the squares is missing. I had to take down the file once I found out, but I haven’t had a chance to fix it yet with all the back to school craziness. Hopefully I will get it fixed this weekend. I sent you an email with more details!
We are really struggling with this one.
My students struggled too! Great challenge before Thanksgiving!