Order of Operations Puzzles

In the Make 6 Puzzle, students must use their knowledge of the order of operations to complete eight different expressions that all evaluate to 6.

This Make Six Puzzle can look almost impossible at first, but I am always amazed at the solutions students come up with to solve this puzzle. Students are shocked, too!

This missing parentheses task will put your students’ order of operations skills to the test! Insert the missing parentheses into each equation to make it true when evaluated according to the order of operations.

This PEMDAS puzzle is harder than it may look at first. Some teachers even have trouble finding some of the solutions.

In this 20 x 9 Challenge, students must apply the order of operations to create nine expressions with each evaluate to 20.

This 5-4-3-2-1 Challenge was one of the first order of operations puzzles that I ever used with my students.

This puzzle is slightly different in that the digits 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 have to stay in that order in each expression. As a result, some solutions may not be possible. How many expressions from 1 to 40 can you find?

This collection of Make 30 Puzzles from Erich Friedman will let you give your students lots of practice with PEMDAS throughout the school year.

You can easily put up a new order of operations challenge each day or each week for students to tackle.

In this “One Incorrect” activity, students are given eight numerical expressions. Seven of the expressions simplify to -13 when evaluated according to the order of operations. 1 of them doesn’t.

How many problems will your students have to work to find the one that doesn’t?

These expressions are missing a plus sign and a multiplication symbol. Sounds simple, right? It turns out they can be quite tricky.

Your students will have to really think about the order of operations while solving theses!

In this Simple Sums Puzzle, insert addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and parentheses between the provided numbers on the left of the equations to make each equation correct.

Concatenation is allowed!

The Four Fours challenge is the first order of operations puzzle that I was ever introduced to. It is a classic for a reason!

How many of the numbers from 1 to 100 can you create using exactly four fours?

Looking for a slightly easier version of the Four Fours Puzzle? Check out the Fours Challenge!

These Twos to Nines Number Challenges make the perfect first week of school activity. I love using these to see if my new students remember what the order of operations is at the beginning of the school year. I just walk around the room and eavesdrop on their conversations about PEMDAS.

If it’s too late in the school year to think about a first week of school activity, I have also turned these into individual printable number challenges for each of the numbers from 2 to 9 that can be used throughout the school year. They are listed below.