Geometry Puzzles

Shikaku Puzzles are a geometric-based logic puzzle from Japan. The goal of a shikaku puzzle is to subdivide the grid into rectangles (and squares) so that the number in each rectangle refers to the area of that rectangle.

Area Maze Puzzles from prolific Japanese puzzle creator Naoki Inaba have become quite popular in the United States. Use your knowledge of area to find the missing information in each diagram.

Solving these quadratic area puzzles (inspired by Naoki Inaba) will require lots of factoring practice!

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.

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.

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.

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.

This equilateral triangle puzzle comes from Puzzle Box, Volume 1 from Dover Publications. I ended up attaching magnets to the back of each puzzle piece and hanging it on my dry erase board as my Puzzle of the Week.

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.

This triangular turkey puzzle is such a great conversation starter. How many different triangles can you find in this picture of a Thanksgiving turkey?

This fun Thanksgiving math puzzle is courtesy of the late, great Martin Gardner.

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 didn’t think it would be that smart to give matchsticks to my students…

Three of these five figures fit together to create a triangle. Which ones are they?

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 used this One Big Square Task with my trigonometry students to review 45-45-90 special right triangles. I found this task in the Open Curriculum Task Database.  I loved listening to the conversations my students had as they struggled through this problem.  And, I mean “struggle” in the best possible way!

Let’s Make Squares is a great team-building activity that was featured in Kagan’s Cooperative Learning Handbook. Students must work together to assemble their popsicle sticks to create various numbers of squares.

The 1-4-5 Square Challenge is actually three challenges in one. Can you make a square using exactly 1 piece? What about exactly 4 pieces? Now, for the real challenge: can you make a square using exactly 5 pieces?

I love this Square the Shapes Puzzle because it’s got some hidden mathematics involved in solving it that may not be obvious at first glance.

Arrange the four provided rectangles to create a perfect square. The pieces may be rotated, but they may not be overlapped.

The Square in Square Puzzle is a creation of the brilliant Peter Grabarchuk. You are given sixteen rectangles. Among these rectangles, only two can be placed next to one another to form a perfect square.

Can you arrange the eight sticks to form exactly three squares, all of the same size?

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. Can you connect the dots on each grid to form the specified geometric shape?

I think these count the quadrilaterals puzzles from 100 Geometric Games by Pierre Berloquin could spark some great classroom conversation.

The goal of the shape grid 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.

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.”