Zero Place Value Puzzles
Practice your place value skills with these zero puzzles from Naoki Inaba. Add zeros to the end of some of the digit cards in order to form a true equation.
Looking for more resources including games and activities for teaching place value? Here’s just a few examples of other place value activities I have shared.
Puzzle Source
These Zero Puzzles are the creation of brilliant and prolific Japanese puzzle creator, Naoki Inaba. Inaba runs a fabulous website full of puzzles for logic puzzle enthusiasts as well as teachers to use in their classrooms. Sadly, the website is entirely in Japanese.
Over the years, I have tried to highlight these resources here on my blog to make these excellent resources more easily usable in an English-speaking classroom.
Puzzle Instructions
Each problem consists of an equation consisting of several digits written on cards. Add zeros to some or all of these cards in order to make a true equation.
Printable Zero Puzzles
Naoki Inaba offers a printable PDF with 49 of these zero puzzles to solve.
Do the puzzles pictured above look too easy? I promise they get much, much harder as you progress through the PDF!
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!
