8 Bats Halloween Puzzle
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Looking for a fun and challenging Halloween puzzle? The Eight Bats Puzzle puts a seasonal spin on a classic chess puzzle from the 1800s.
Instructions
Place eight bats on the checkerboard below so that no two bats are on the same line, either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.
Each student or group of students will need a copy of the puzzle page as well as a set of eight bats.
I created a page of bat pieces for the teacher to print on colored paper, laminate, cut out, and distribute to students.
If you have checkerboards or chessboards in your classroom, it might also be fun to grab a set of Halloween Mini Erasers and have the students solve the puzzle on an actual checkered board.
Puzzle Inspiration
This puzzle was inspired by the classic Eight Queens chess puzzle that was first published by Max Bezzel in 1848.
This puzzle involved placing eight queens on a chessboard so that none of the queens were attacking one another.
If you are not familiar with the rules of chess, a queen is able to attack any piece that is in the same row, column, or diagonal.
This Halloween version is a bit more accessible to students because even though the puzzle is set on a chessboard, students do not need to know anything about the game of chess in order to solve the puzzle.
There are 92 different solutions to this puzzle.
Using this Puzzle in the Classroom
I am using this puzzle in my classroom this week as one of my Puzzles of the Week. We are tackling three puzzles including this Halloween logic puzzle, a Pentomino Mammoth Puzzle that I have not blogged about yet, and the U Sums Puzzle.
My students really excelled about being able to place the bats so they were not in the same row or column. It was much more of a struggle to not place the bats in the same line diagonally.
I put my copies of the laminated puzzle in one of my magnetic pockets from Charles Leonard. Then, the magnetic pockets hang on the dry erase board so that students can easily grab a copy of the puzzle and a bag of bats and take it to their table to work on.
My students typically work on the puzzle of the week before class starts or after they finish their assignment for the class period.
Free Download of Eight Bats Halloween Puzzle
This 8 Bats Halloween Puzzle is available to download in PDF format and as an editable Publisher file. In order to edit the file, you will need to make sure that Microsoft Publisher is installed on your computer.
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.
