Cover the Duck Puzzle
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This week’s puzzle on the puzzle table is a duck-themed shape fitting puzzle that I am calling “Cover the Duck.” I didn’t really plan it this way, but this is the second week in a row where the puzzle table featured a duck-themed puzzle.
Last week, my students tackled a puzzled called Ducks and Snakes.
The Cover the Duck Puzzle is by Tanya Grabarchuk and can be found in Puzzle Box, Volume 3.
I’m fully convinced that I could do a puzzle table for an entire year using only puzzles from this book and still not run out of great puzzles. These puzzle books (volumes 1-3) are just that great!
Students are given a puzzle board which features an outline of a shape that is reminiscent of a duck.
They are also given five pieces. These puzzle pieces can be flipped and rotated to form the duck shape, but they cannot be overlapped. The pieces are tetrominoes. You may recognize their shapes from the game of Tetris.
The cover the duck puzzle is much easier compared to some of the puzzles I’ve featured on the puzzle table in past weeks. At least one student has solved it in one setting. Other students are still puzzling on how to solve this puzzle.
Free Download of Cover the Duck Puzzle
Cover the Duck (PDF) (3274 downloads )
Cover the Duck (Editable Publisher File ZIP) (1150 downloads )
Both the puzzle board and the puzzle pieces are designed to print on letter sized paper.
Once you have the puzzle pieces printed, you can use those same puzzle pieces for several other puzzles:
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.
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, as fun activities in their workplace, or as a birthday party escape room.
