First Day of School Hidoku Logic Puzzles
These first day of school hidoku puzzles are the perfect puzzle for kicking off the new school year with some logical thinking practice!
This puzzle is just one of many printable hidoku logic puzzles that I have created for my own classroom and am sharing with you!
Be sure to check out my entire collection of free printable logic puzzles.
Looking for more first day of school activities and puzzles for your classroom? I have a giant blog post dedicated to 40+ activities for the first week of school.
Here’s a few examples of some of these engaging activities for the beginning of the school year.
What are Hidoku Puzzles?
Hidoku Puzzles (originally published as Hidato Puzzles) are the creation of Dr. Gyora M. Benedek, an Israeli mathematician. The Hebrew word “hida” means riddle. In a hidoku puzzle, you are given a grid with a selection of the numbers already filled in.
Your task is to fill in the missing numbers so that each number connects to the next number either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. 1 must connect to 2, 2 must connect to 3, and so on.
When I use Hidoku Puzzles with students, I often have them draw in the lines between the numbers in order to help them check their solutions.
First Day of School Hidoku Puzzle Instructions
Fill in the missing numbers in the letter-shaped grids so that each number connects to the next number either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
This first day of school logic puzzle is actually eight hidoku puzzles in one!
You could definitely think of this puzzle as making a “chain of numbers.”
Four Levels of Puzzles and Printing Options
These first day of school logic puzzles are available to download in four different levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Challenging.
As the levels progress, you are given fewer and fewer numbers on the grid to begin with. This means that much more logic is required to solve the puzzle.
For most students, I would recommend starting with an easy level puzzle unless your students have solved numerous hidoku puzzles in the past.
Free Download of First Day of School Hidoku Logic Puzzles
These first day puzzles are available as a PDF download and as an editable PowerPoint file.
Click here to Download
First Day Hidoku Puzzles (PDF)
2 downloads – 434.23 KB
Editable Powerpoint Files in ZIP Folder
Click here to Download
First Day Hidoku Puzzles (PPT in ZIP)
0 downloads – 2.44 MB
Puzzle Solutions
I intentionally do not make answers to the printable puzzles and math activities 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.
