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Today I finally got around to taking down the last puzzle we tackled before Christmas Break. It is always my aim to switch out my puzzles on a weekly basis, but sometimes the hectic nature of the classroom prevails. This was a reminder that I haven’t shared this symmetric square puzzle here on the blog yet.
This Symmetric Square puzzle is from Robert Allen’s Mensa All-Color Puzzle Book. It’s an okay puzzle book for personal puzzling, but I struggled to find enough puzzles with classroom applications to really recommend it for teachers to purchase.
Students are given ten tiles which must be arranged in such a way that a square is formed in which each horizontal line matches up with a vertical line. You should notice quite quickly that this partial attempted solution does not work.
Only a day after I tweeted a picture of the puzzle on my dry erase board, Tracy Esposito was sending me pictures of student reflections after having her year 6 class tackle this puzzle. How awesome is that?!?
Free Download of Symmetric Square Puzzle
Symmetric Square Puzzle (PDF) (855 downloads )
Symmetric Square Puzzle (Editable Publisher File ZIP) (588 downloads )
Puzzle Solutions
I intentionally do not make answers to the printable math puzzles 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.
Marcus
Monday 2nd of March 2020
Hi Sarah. Thank you so much. It's a great job you're doing here.
Jackie
Saturday 25th of January 2020
A little confused... The square piece has two 6s, and there is a 2x1 piece with a 0 & 9. Those are both obvious because they're underlined. Then there's a 3x1 piece that doesn't have any underlining, but based on the direction of the 5 it seems to read 5,8,6. Is the 6 not underlined on purpose, or just because it's unnecessary since the orientation of the 5 gives it away? Or are they supposed to struggle with if it's a 6 or 9?
Sarah Carter (@mathequalslove)
Wednesday 24th of June 2020
That was just an oversight... It should be underlined.
Annasarahbee
Monday 20th of January 2020
Your blog has inspired my teaching SO MUCH. I teach grade 7 in Vancouver BC. I hope you know how much we appreciate the effort you put into this blog. THANK YOU!