| | |

Holiday Triples Puzzle

This blog post contains Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.

In this winter holiday-themed word puzzle, you must carefully arrange the letter trio cards to spell a variety of Christmas related words. Can you solve this Christmas challenge from Erich Friedman?

holiday triples word puzzle

Puzzle Instructions

Combine the letter trios to spell out some words associated with Christmas. Each trio of letters will be used exactly once.

holiday triples word puzzle instructions

For example, RIB and BON can be combined to form RIBBON. What other Christmas themed words will you be able to find?

close-up of holiday triples word puzzle

Puzzle Inspiration

This “Holiday Triples” puzzle was published by Erich Friedman in 2013 as part of a holiday puzzles collection. I knew it would make the perfect interactive puzzle for my math classroom! I discovered this puzzle and ended up creating my own holiday-inspired Halloween Triples Puzzle and Thanksgiving Triples Puzzle.

Back in April, I also shared a math-word version of this triples puzzle that can be used year-round!

Prepping the Puzzle

I printed the letter trio pages on green colored paper and it through my laminator before cutting the pieces apart.

close-up of magnet on the back of holiday triples word puzzle

I put ceramic disc magnets on the back of each word card so the puzzle could hang on my dry erase board. This is completely optional. For my Halloween and Thanksgiving versions of this puzzle, I just put the cards in ziplock bags and had students take the cards to their table to work on the puzzle.

Using the Puzzle in the Classroom

I am currently this puzzle as my puzzle of the week. My students have been really engaged with it. Since we have done the same puzzle for different holidays, I had a bunch of students jump right in and solve it since they already knew how the puzzle worked.

holiday triples word puzzle hanging on dry erase board in classroom

Puzzle Solutions

I intentionally do not make answers to the printable math puzzles I share on my blog available online because I strive to provide learning experiences for my students that are non-google-able. I would like other teachers to be able to use these puzzles in their classrooms as well without the solutions being easily found on the Internet.

However, I do recognize that us teachers are busy people and sometimes need to quickly reference an answer key to see if a student has solved a puzzle correctly or to see if they have interpreted the instructions properly.

If you are a teacher who is using these puzzles in your classroom, please send me an email at sarah@mathequalslove.net with information about what you teach and where you teach. I will be happy to forward an answer key to you.

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, as fun activities in their workplace, or as a birthday party escape room.

Sarah Carter teaches high school math in her hometown of Coweta, Oklahoma. She currently teaches AP Precalculus, AP Calculus AB, and Statistics. She is passionate about sharing creative and hands-on teaching ideas with math teachers around the world through her blog, Math = Love.

Similar Posts