Engage students with the A Plus Puzzle! Free printable math activity where they assemble 5 pieces to form a plus sign. Fun and interactive for all!
Mondays are quickly becoming a day that my students look forward to. Yesterday, I overheard one student excitedly tell another that they were excited to see what this week’s joke was. Then, they raced to read it and check out the answer.
Ready for it? According to another one of my students, this week’s joke is a good one!
Want more math jokes? Check out my math joke of the week collection.
Monday is also the day of the week when I switch out our weekly magnetic puzzle.
Last week, we tackled the Nine Squares Puzzle that I posted this summer.
This week we’re testing out a brand-new puzzle called the A Plus Puzzle from The World’s Biggest Book of Brainteasers & Logic Puzzles. This book is massive at around 700 pages, but I was a bit disappointed in the fact that it had very few puzzles of the sort that I like to use in my classroom with moving pieces.
The A plus puzzle gives you five shapes which must be arranged into a plus sign. Yes, it is possible.
No, this does not count as a plus sign.
Yes, this will drive both students and teachers crazy. I included this in a presentation I did this summer, and I had some teachers rather frustrated with this puzzle for quite some time. The look on their faces when they finally figured it out was priceless.
Free Download of A Plus Puzzle
A Plus Puzzle (PDF) (1368 downloads )
A Plus Puzzle (Editable Publisher File ZIP) (679 downloads )
Want even more puzzles? Check out my dedicated puzzle page.
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.
Ms. Tincher
Sunday 24th of November 2019
solution includes the biggest piece being diaganal
Math Princess
Thursday 7th of November 2019
I used to do fun things like puzzles of the week. Thanks for the ideas and the reminders! It seems like I never have time to do anything extra. But I would like to implement some things for students to look forward to.
Unknown
Tuesday 24th of September 2019
Can you post the solution? Thanks
BreB
Monday 16th of September 2019
Changing the puzzle weekly is a great engagement tool and way to keep the students looking forward to doing math which can be a difficult subject for some. Do you just browse amazon to find your resources or are there any blogs/sites you follow that recommend materials?
Unknown
Friday 13th of September 2019
Can you please post a solution??!! Four adults 120 kids couldn't figure it out today! LOL . My kiddos are really wanting to know the answer to this.
Thanks!