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Goose Pentominoes Puzzle

This goose pentominoes puzzle challenges you to use a standard set of twelve pentominoes to build the shape of a goose. This is part of a collection of animal-shaped pentominoes puzzles available here on my blog.

pentominoes goose puzzle screenshot with pentominoes puzzle pieces above it

This puzzle is just one of many printable pentominoes puzzles that I have created for my own classroom and am sharing with you!

Be sure to check out my entire collection of hands-on puzzles for the classroom.

pentominoes resources for the classroom.

Puzzle Instructions

The goal of this pentominoes goose puzzle is to construct the shape of a goose using a standard set of twelve pentominoes. The pentominoes may be flipped or rotated, but they are not allowed to overlap one another.

pentominoes goose puzzle surrounded by green pentominoes pieces

This puzzle only has a single solution that I am aware of.

partially solved pentominoes goose puzzle

Printing and Prepping the Pentominoes Puzzles

11 x 17 Version

This pentominoes puzzle is designed to print on 11 x 17 inch paper. I print all of my pentominoes puzzles on 11 x 17 cardstock for extra durability, but regular 11 x 17 copy paper will work just fine as well. (If you don’t have the ability to print on 11 x 17 paper, keep reading for an alternative printing option!)

screenshot of pentominoes goose puzzle

All of my pentominoes puzzles are sized for plastic pentominoes made up of 1-inch squares.

If you don’t have a class set of plastic pentominoes, I do have a printable version of 1-inch pentominoes available to download and print. Please be aware that you MUST allow students to turn over the printed pentominoes pieces in order to solve the puzzle! This is less obvious than with the plastic pentominoes pieces.

MATH = LOVE RECOMMENDS…

plastic one inch pentominoes in bucket

Amazon offers several brands of plastic pentominoes which I recommend. Each brand is sold in a tub containing six sets of twelve pentominoes each for a total of 72 pentomino pieces.

Want each student to have their own set of pentominoes? I also offer a set of free printable one-inch pentominoes pieces which can be laminated or printed on cardstock for durability.

Letter Sized Version

Since many teachers have told me that they do not have access to a copy machine or printer which prints on 11 x 17 paper, I have also uploaded a letter-sized version below which prints on 8.5 x 11 inch paper. You will have to trim and tape or glue the two letter-sized pages together to form the pentominoes puzzle board.

Hints for Solving

Pentominoes puzzles which use an entire set of twelve standard pentominoes can be quite tricky to solve. It’s not unusual to hear that students have worked on a puzzle for over 45 minutes without finding a solution.

green hint cards for pentominoes goose puzzle

While some students can handle this level of perseverance, other students might benefit from a few hints in solving the puzzle. I have created a set of 4 printable hint cards that can be used with students to give them (or yourself!) a small piece of the solution.

back-side of pentominoes hint cards for goose puzzle

These goose hint cards can be downloaded at the end of this blog post.

There are several ways you can use these printable hint cards in your classroom.

If you are having students work on the puzzle as a full-class activity, you can make the pentomino puzzle hint cards available after students have worked for a certain amount of time.

If you are using the pentominoes puzzles as an early finisher activity or as a puzzle of the week for students to work on in their spare time, you could post the puzzle without any hints on day 1. On each subsequent day, you could add a different hint card.

I look forward to seeing what other ways that teachers come up with to make these hint cards work for their students.

Ideas for Using in Class

I put up this pentomino goose puzzle as my puzzle of the week for students to work on if they chose to after finishing an assignment early or before class even starts.

pentominoes goose puzzle hanging up on dry erase board in high school math classroom with hint cards

I hung two copies of the puzzle printed on 11 x 17 cardstock on my dry erase board with two sets of plastic pentominoes for students to grab in a magnetic pocket.

pentominoes goose puzzle as puzzle of the week

I love these magnetic pockets from Charles Leonard (available from Amazon) because students can easily grab the entire pocket of pentominoes and the puzzle and take it back to their desk to solve the puzzle.

plastic pentominoes in charles leonard magnetic pocket pouch

This keeps me from having to pass out pentominoes or from students dropping pieces on their way to their desks.

I use magnetic clips to attach the hint cards to the board so students can grab them and take to their table or just take a peek at and hang back on the dry erase board.

close-up of pentominoes goose hint card

Puzzle Solutions

Puzzle solutions are available on a password-protected solution page. I do not openly post the puzzle answer keys because one of my goals as a resource creator is to craft learning experiences for students that are non-google-able. I want teachers to be able to use these puzzles in their classrooms without the solutions being found easily on the Internet.

Please email me at sarah@mathequalslove.net for the password to the answer key database featuring all of my printable puzzles and math worksheets. I frequently have students emailing me for the answer key, so please specify in your email what school you teach at and what subjects you teach. If you do not provide these details, I will not be able to send you the password.

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, or as fun activities in their workplace. Just give me enough details so I know you are not a student looking for answers to the puzzle that was assigned as their homework!

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