One of the yearly activities I look forward to at my school is our annual Pinwheels for Peace celebration. Pinwheels for Peace is a school-wide, cross-curricular project that occurs every September. At my school, the project is headed up by by my super-talented, award-winning art teacher neighbor, Shelley Self. September 21st is International Day of …
Digital Activities
Last year, I created a guess the correlation coefficient blooket game for my statistics students to play. If you’re not familiar with Blooket, it is very similar to Kahoot or Quizizz. It’s main attraction is the ability to choose different game methods for students to play. My students really enjoy playing Gold Quest, Cafe, and …
I was super excited to discover a mathematical variation of tic-tac-toe. Instead of playing with Xs and Os, Numerical Tic Tac Toe is a game of evens vs odds. I printed the even and odd numbers on different colors of paper to make it super clear which numbers belong to each person. You might have …
Here’s a third hidden equation puzzle from Erich Friedman. Circle one symbol in each column so that a true equation results reading from left to right. I love to use these hidden equation puzzles with dry erase pockets in my classroom. If you don’t have a classroom set of dry erase pockets, you could also …
I’m super excited about using this ink stain matching activity as a first day of school activity for next year. It’s a great conversation starter, and I can see it being used in many different types of classrooms and subjects as a beginning of year team-building activity. If you are still in school and looking …
I’m really excited about this Pentasquares puzzle from Serhiy Grabarchuk. Pentasquares are five square shapes which fit inside a 3 x 3 dimension. The goal of this puzzle is to put all six pentasquares inside a 6 x 6 square. You can rotate the pentasquares, but you may not overlap them or flip them over. …
I ran across this X Marks the Spot Puzzle several years ago. The goal of the puzzle is to place Xs in the drawing so that a certain set of requirements is met. After typing up this puzzle with several other brainteasers, I promptly misplaced the computer file before ever using any of the puzzles …
I ran across this Pyramid Solitaire Puzzle in The Diagram Group’s Little Giant Encyclopedia of Puzzles. The goal is to pace the 16 markers in a pyramid pattern. Then, jump the markers horizontally and vertically so that a single marker remains in the center of the board. Each jump moves a marker over any adjacent …
In this Make Six Puzzle, you are given eight equations. You must insert mathematical symbols (no digits) to make each equation equal six. If you are wondering what mathematical symbols you are allowed to use, that is up to you!
I really like this order of operations activity that I am naming “Missing Parentheses.” I found it in the textbook Intermediate Algebra for College Students by Karl J. Smith and Patrick J. Boyle (free to borrow from the Internet Archive’s Online Lending Library). Yesterday, I shared a lovely set of 10 order of operations practice …
I am really liking these quadratic area puzzles from Chritsopher (Bow Tie Teacher on twitter) that are posted for free on TES. They are inspired by Naoki Inaba‘s Area Maze puzzles with a quadratic spin on things. For next year, I think I would like to do some sort of activity at the beginning of …
It’s been almost two years since I last shared a hidden equation puzzle with you. These hidden equation puzzles are the product of Erich Friedman, a math professor and prolific puzzle creator. You can read more about Hidden Equation Puzzle 1 here. I was introduced to these hidden equation puzzles through Puzzle Box, Volume 2. …
I am really excited about this shape grid puzzle from Erich Friedman. The goal of the puzzle is to divide the grid into geometric shapes. Any lines you draw must follow either the grid lines or the diagonals of the grid squares. Each shape that you draw must contain exactly one shape icon inside. This …
Last month, I tried out a Valentine’s Jamboard Activity with all of my classes to help show appreciation to the various teachers/school employees in our building. We did this on a Friday after a week of being digital due to the ice/snowpocalypse. I thought it would be a nice change of pace from our daily …
I’ve been a fan of this factoring puzzle for factoring quadratic trinomials since I worked through it at a Common Core workshop I attended (OGAP) in the summer of 2013. Over the last couple of days, I have been going back through these resources that I originally blogged about and giving each resource its own …
Today I’m sharing the Sum to Twenty-One Puzzle with you. Previously, I have shared similar puzzles called Sum to Twenty and Sum to Thirty. These puzzles are the creation of Marcy Cook. They were shared in THINK ABOUT IT! Mathematics Problems of the Day which was published by Creative Publications in 1982. The book is …
The 9-10-11-12 Challenge is actually four puzzles in one. Can you arrange the numbers 1 through 6 in the spaces of the triangular shape below so that each side sums to 9? Repeat the challenge for sums of 10, 11, and 12. I learned of this challenge from a collection of brainteasers that is no …
Everyone knows how to play tic-tac-toe. But can you solve the tic tac toe challenge puzzle? This fun brain teaser is simple to explain, but it can be hard to solve!
Hidato Puzzles have been one of my go-to puzzles in my file cabinet of puzzles for several years now. I have had great success with getting students interested in these puzzles who haven’t been interested in other logic puzzles like Sudoku or KenKen. Somehow, these puzzles have never made an appearance on my blog. Today, …
Can you solve the 145 Doors Puzzle to help a prisoner break out of a medieval dungeon with 145 doors? The 145 Doors Puzzle is one of my favorite puzzles from The Moscow Puzzles: 359 Mathematical Recreations by Boris A. Kordemsky. You can also find the 145 doors puzzle online at NCTM Illuminations. Here’s the text …
I’m back today with a fun, new puzzle called The Splice is Right Puzzle. This puzzle is from the book Test Your Math IQ by Steve Ryan. I was able to borrow the book for free from the Internet Archive’s online lending library. I highly recommend this site for checking out various books before you …
I’m super excited today to share a dotplot matching activity I recently created for my statistics class. This summer when I realized I was actually going to get to teach statistics again after a multi-year hiatus, I got super excited and started doing lots of research. One of the books that came across my path …
I’m back today with a new puzzle, Tic Tac Total. This puzzle, unlike the Pair Ups Puzzle I shared recently, can easily be applied to the distance learning classroom. It’s from the same excellent book Test Your Math IQ by Steve Ryan. I was able to borrow the book for free from the Internet Archive’s …
Today I’m sharing a new puzzle with you called the 8 sticks puzzle. Yesterday, I bemoaned the loss of my classroom puzzle corner. I’ve been trying to come up with some ways to keep incorporating puzzles in my classroom in a pandemic-friendly manner. My favorite puzzles are the ones with pieces that students can manipulate. …
I want to share a factoring quadratics practice activity I created for my Algebra 2 students. In the Oklahoma math standards, students are first exposed to factoring quadratics in Algebra 1. However, they are only exposed to factoring quadratics where the leading coefficient is 1. These are called monic quadratics. Thus, my Algebra 2 students …