Math Puzzles

These puzzles have been successfully used by thousands of elementary school teachers, middle school teachers, and high school teachers from around the world. It is amazing to see how a single puzzle can be used with students across a wide variety of grade levels. 

My goal is to provide a single good resource that teachers can visit that equips them to implement math puzzles (or maths puzzles for my British and Australian readers) in their classrooms. 

As a math teacher and puzzle lover, I get especially excited about using math puzzles in the classroom. I have tried to organize these math puzzles by math topic to help you find the perfect free printable math puzzle for your next class period!

Browse Free Printable Math Puzzles by Math Topic

Fun Fact – I have more than just math puzzles to choose from. Check out my other puzzle category pages to find free printable logic puzzles (like sudoku, hidoku, nonograms, and kakuro puzzles), hands-on puzzles, mazes, and word puzzles!

Why use Math Puzzles in the Classroom?

Why should you use puzzles in math class? I answer this question with another question. Why wouldn’t you want to use puzzles in the classroom? 

Puzzles are fun. Puzzles are the most effective way I know to get students thinking, communicating, persevering, and experimenting. Logic puzzles bring out all of the behaviors in students that I want to develop as a math teacher including strategic thinking skills, logical reasoning, improved number sense, fluency with mental calculations, and problem-solving skills. 

When I give my students a math puzzle to solve, I’m less concerned about them arriving at the correct answer. My goal is to engage their brains and help build their inner mathematician skills. 

It is my firm belief that puzzles provide the perfect medium for practicing perseverance in the mathematics classroom.

Sarah Carter (Math = Love)

Depending on the puzzle you pick, puzzles can be a fun way to reinforce mathematical concepts. Working on sequences? Try a sequence puzzle that asks students to find the missing numbers. Working on integers? Try an integer puzzle that involves positive and negative numbers. Need to practice vocabulary? Math crossword puzzles are where it’s at! 

But I don’t think that every puzzle that you use in the classroom has to be tied to your specific standards. Puzzles are a great way to get students’ brains warmed up before beginning a topic. They also make a great brain break activity to break up a long set of notes. 

Where Do These Printable Math Puzzles Come From? 

Even though I’ve always loved puzzles, it wasn’t until around year 5 of my teaching career that I started making a concerted effort to incorporate them into my classroom on a regular basis. Since then, my love for puzzles has grown exponentially.

As I have scoured books and the internet for new and interesting puzzles to use with my students, I have shared the puzzles I have used here on my blog. Over the years, thousands of other teachers have joined me in including puzzles in their own classrooms. 

I started this blog journey by curating a collection of classic logic puzzles and reformatting puzzles that I found in various sources to work in the math classroom. Over time, I have shifted to creating my own puzzles. Creating logic puzzles and math puzzles is a passion project of mine and something I am always interested in learning more about.

Math Puzzle Answer Key

I intentionally do not post math puzzle answer keys on my website. While students hate this approach, I find that many math teachers actually appreciate being able to assign a puzzle for students that is not easily google-able. 

I do share puzzle solutions with teachers via email. Please send me an email at sarah@mathequalslove.net with the name of the school you teach at and the subjects you teach. And, I will be happy to forward the puzzle solutions to you!