This snowflake puzzle is a fun, logic puzzle with a winter theme. Can you place the snowflakes on the grid so that each row and column contain an even (not odd) number of snowflakes? Snowflake Puzzle Instructions Arrange the ten snowflakes in the 4×4 grid so that each row and column contain an even (not …
Puzzles with Movable Pieces
This winter-themed mystery tangram puzzle combines two favorite math activities into one. This printable puzzle requires students to graph points on the coordinate plane in order to create a winter image which they can recreate using a standard set of 7 tangrams. When I shared my Christmas Mystery Tangram Puzzle, I had several teachers reach …
Ring in the new calendar year with a fun 2023 puzzle! Can you arrange the strips in the given grid to form the digits in 2023? Available in two levels (easy and advanced), this puzzle is sure to provide a fun challenge for all those who attempt it. One of my goals for my maternity …
Wanting to share the joy of pentominoes puzzles with your students? Download a free set of printable one-inch square pentomino pieces to use for your puzzle solving. Overview of Pentominoes Pentominoes is a special name given to the set of polygons formed by connecting five squares along their edges. There are twelve distinct pentominoes that …
This reindeer pentominoes puzzle is the second addition to my growing collection of Christmas-themed pentominoes puzzles for the classroom. My students love pentominoes puzzles, and I think your students will love these puzzles as well! Previously, I shared two different versions of a Christmas Tree Pentominoes Puzzle. Reindeer Pentominoes Puzzle Instructions The goal of this …
This Christmas Mystery Tangram Puzzle combines two favorite math activities into one. This printable Christmas puzzle will have students both practicing plotting ordered pairs on the coordinate plane and solving a fun tangram puzzle using the resulting outline from the plotted ordered pairs. I was inspired to create this Christmas-themed puzzle after seeing just how …
Help bring some festive puzzling spirit to your classroom with this pentominoes Christmas tree puzzle. My students love pentominoes puzzles, and I think your students will love these puzzles as well! Last Christmas, I made a note to myself to look for some Christmas-themed pentominoes puzzles for the next school year. I ended up lucking …
This pentominoes pig puzzle is the latest addition to my growing collection of free printable pentominoes puzzles that I created for my students and am sharing with you to use in your own classroom. For the month of October, I challenged my students to complete the Jack-o-lantern pentominoes puzzle. It turned out to be a …
This Thanksgiving Mystery Tangram Puzzle combines two favorite math activities into one. This printable Thanksgiving puzzle will have students both practicing plotting ordered pairs on the coordinate plane and solving a fun tangram puzzle using the resulting outline from the plotted ordered pairs. Puzzle Inspiration I was inspired to create this Thanksgiving-themed puzzle after seeing …
This jack-o’-lantern made from pentominoes is the perfect halloween puzzle for math class. In this math activity, students must work to arrange a standard set of twelve pentominoes to form a jack-o’-lantern. This pentominoes puzzle is the perfect antidote for the fact that carving pumpkins is just too messy of an activity for math class. …
This 4 Cards Playing Card Puzzle is actually three puzzles in one. Students are challenged to arrange four playing cards to fulfill three different challenges. I printed jumbo cards and attached ceramic disc magnets to the back of each card so my students could easily manipulate the cards while trying to solve the three playing …
This Halloween Mystery Tangram Puzzle combines two favorite math activities into one. This printable Halloween puzzle will have students both practicing plotting ordered pairs on the coordinate plane and solving a fun tangram puzzle using the resulting outline from the plotted ordered pairs. Last year, I shared a bat tangram puzzle which many of you …
This fraction dominoes puzzle asks students to arrange an entire set of dominoes (except for the 0:0 tile) to form six correct addition equations involving fractions. Each domino tile should be considered as a fraction. This puzzle is the creation of L.P. Mochalov. I originally found the puzzle in Mochalov’s Totally Tough Brainteasers book, but …
I typed up this Domino Pyramid Puzzle from L.P. Mochalov to use with these sets of dominoes that I purchased last summer from Dollar Tree. Dollar Tree’s dominoes (shown below on the right) are slightly smaller than a standard-sized domino, but you definitely can’t beat the price! I was reminded the other day when posting …
Last year, I created a copy of the chess cube puzzle for my classroom. Over the last few years, I have made quite a few puzzles for my classroom out of wooden cubes including the Gambler’s Die Puzzle, Instant Insanity, Three Immovable Pentablocks, SOMA blocks, and Genius Blocks. When I ran across another puzzle that …
The animal-shaped pentominoes puzzles I have been putting out on a weekly basis have been a huge hit with my students. This elephant pentominoes puzzle was no exception! Elephant Pentominoes Puzzle Instructions Can you arrange a set of twelve pentominoes to form the shape of an elephant? You can flip or rotate any of the …
I’m continuing the theme of sharing a weekly pentominoes animal puzzle with this week’s terrier puzzle. My students who tackled last week’s penguin pentominoes challenge were super excited to see a new animal puzzle to take on. Can you arrange a set of twelve pentominoes to form the shape of a terrier? I discovered this …
This Little Ones and Big Ones Puzzle was a huge hit with my students last semester. I appreciate the simplicity of this puzzle. Even though there are only four different puzzle pieces, this is actually four different puzzles in one! Select any of the four shapes (say, the rectangle). Try to fit your four pieces …
I was super excited today to share a new penguin pentominoes puzzle with my students as this week’s puzzle of the week. Can you arrange a set of twelve pentominoes to form the shape of a penguin? Several students attempted to solve this penguin puzzle over the course of the day, but so far none …
This printable heart tangram puzzle is perfect for engaging students on Valentine’s Day or any day of the year! The goal of this puzzle is to arrange the ten pieces to form a heart. When I saw a tweet from David Butler with a Valentine’s Day puzzle he created for his wife, I knew that …
My students have been LOVING these free printable pentominoes puzzle challenges that I have posted this week on the dry erase board in my high school math classroom. Even though I am using them with high school students, they are suitable for almost all ages! What are Pentominoes? Pentominoes is a special name given to …
The Impossible Domino Tower Puzzle asks, “Can you arrange 16 dominoes to build this seemingly impossible domino tower?” This domino puzzle might look familiar because I tackled a similar puzzle, the Impossible Domino Bridge, with my students back in September. My students loved the challenge of building with dominoes. So when I saw that Ivan …
This Rotated Square Puzzle challenges you to place the numbers 1 through 9 in the boxes of the rotated square so that the numbers in each horizontal row form a number which is a horizontal square. This puzzle is the creation of L.P. Mochalov, and I found it in his book of Totally Tough Brainteasers. …
This Zigzag Overlap Puzzle was a fun addition to my puzzle of the week collection! The challenge is to arrange the eight strips into the five-by-five grid so that you will see the continuous black band running diagonally across the board as shown. I found this zigzag overlap puzzle in Ivan Moscovich’s The Big Book …
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… …