Can you place the numbers 1 to 5 in the correct places to solve the equal sums puzzle?
Geometry Puzzles
Looking for fun and engaging geometry puzzles? Here is a collection of 25 free printable geometric puzzles that I have used in the past with my high school math students. Most of these puzzles should be appropriate to use with individuals ranging in age from upper elementary school or middle school to adults. My students’ …
Sankaku puzzles are a geometric based logic puzzle that focuses on finding the area of a triangle. The goal of each puzzle is to connect three dots to form a triangle with the specified area. Sankaku puzzles are the creation of Naoki Inaba, a prolific Japanese puzzle creator. I first discovered these puzzles several years …
This tricky triangles puzzle has been around for over a century – can you arrange these eight sticks to form exactly four triangles and two squares? The original puzzle was meant to be solved with matchsticks, but I don’t think I need to explain why I won’t be giving my students matchsticks to play with… …
It’s November which means it’s finally time to pull out this Triangular Turkey puzzle for Thanksgiving. How many different triangles can you find in this picture of a Thanksgiving turkey? I ran across this triangular turkey puzzle in a Martin Gardner book (Perplexing Puzzles and Tantalizing Teasers) this summer, and I knew I had to …
In this Congruent Shapes Puzzle, students are given two colors of puzzle pieces. The task is to arrange the two colors of pieces to form two congruent shapes. You can rotate pieces and flip them over but not overlap them. This Congruent Shapes Puzzle is the creation of the brilliant Erich Friedman and can be …
This summer I typed up this Fitting Shapes Puzzle. Can you fit the six shapes into the board without overlap? I found this puzzle in The Big Book of Brain Games by Ivan Moscovich. This book seriously weighs several pounds, and it has 1000 puzzles in it. Several blog readers have shared with me that …
I’m excited to get back to featuring a new puzzle of the week every week in my classroom this year. A new puzzle I have prepped for this year is called Three of Five. Three of these five figures fit together to create a triangle. Which ones are they? I ran across this puzzle in …
Looking for a challenge? Check out this page of Make It Pythagorean Puzzles. Insert the same digit (in any manner of your choosing) to each side of the triangle to form a right triangle. I ran across these interesting puzzles in Golf on the Moon by Dick Hess (Dover Publications).
This 577 = 11111 Puzzle asks you to arrange the numbers 5, 7, and 7 to make a shape. Then, you are tasked to make an identical shape using the numbers 1, 1, 1, 1, and 1. This creative puzzle was created by Erich Friedman and shared in Puzzle Box, Volume 1. Have you noticed …
The Parts of a Whole Puzzle gives students five shapes that must be arranged to form a triangle whose three sides are of equal length. In other words, form an equilateral triangle. I would have renamed this as the Equilateral Triangle Puzzle, but I have already shared a different equilateral triangle puzzle on my blog …
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 …
I want to share with you a Pair Ups Puzzle today. I recently ran across an excellent book of puzzles called Test Your Math IQ by Steve Ryan. It’s out of print, but I was able to borrow it through the Internet Archive’s free online library which is my favorite way to find and look …
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. …
The Square in Square Puzzle is a creation of the brilliant Peter Grabarchuk. It is one of my weekly magnetic puzzles that never made it up on the blog this school year. Imagine that… You are given sixteen rectangles. Among these rectangles, only two can be placed next to one another to form a perfect …
I think these count the quadrilaterals tasks from 100 Geometric Games by Pierre Berloquin could spark some great classroom conversation. I was able to view them on Amazon by choosing the “Look Inside” feature. How many quadrilaterals are in each diagram?
Master the art of the squaring off puzzle! Rotate and arrange given rectangular pieces to create a perfect square, testing your problem-solving skills. Thanksgiving Break is here, and I am oh so grateful for these few days off. This year has felt like one long learning curve as I figure out what life looks like …
In my last post, I shared the Square Pi Puzzle and mentioned that I was updating some older puzzles that have been long-time favorites of my students. Today, I want to share another updated puzzle, the 1-4-5 Square Challenge. I originally shared this puzzle on my blog in May 2015 which seems like an eternity …
This equilateral triangle puzzle comes from Puzzle Box, Volume 1 from Dover Publications. This is the first book in a series of three puzzle books that are edited by the Peter and Serhiy Grabarchuk. This specific puzzle is by Richard Candy. Each volume has 300 puzzles, and I have found over a hundred puzzles between …
I’m very excited about the Square the Shapes Puzzle (this week’s puzzle table selection) because it’s got some hidden mathematics involved in solving it that aren’t obvious at first glance. I find that my students are less likely to tackle the puzzle on the puzzle table when the math connection is blatantly obvious. This week’s …
Today I would like to introduce you to the Ducks and Snakes Puzzle from Erich Friedman. Yesterday marked the first Monday of the second semester. This meant it was time to put out a new puzzle on the puzzle table. I have a table in my classroom where I set out a different puzzle each …
These Angle Maze Puzzles from Naoki Inaba challenge students to find a path through a maze by being able to recognize common angle measurements. Draw a path through the maze from S to G. Each time you pass through a numbered circle, the path must form that angle in degrees. This summer, I blogged about …
Zukei puzzles are the brilliant creation of Naoki Inaba. Inaba has posted these puzzles for free on his website, but it can be a bit hard to navigate since everything is written in Japanese. You may have heard of Inaba from his popular area maze puzzles. Instructions for Solving Zukei Puzzles The instructions for the …
I found this dragon puzzle to practice special right triangles online, and I fell in love with it. Each of the triangles is a special right triangle. I did a bit of research, and I was able to find the original source. I also found the same problem in McDougal Littell’s Geometry: An Integrated …
Build It is a cooperative, team building activity that encourages students to work together, communicate, and think logically as they construct a geometric object to satisfy a set of given clues. If you’re looking to work on vocabulary, this activity introduces/reinforces words such as “face” and “edge.” I learned about Build It from Stanford’s website. The …