Four Seasons Puzzle
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Yesterday, I added the four seasons puzzle to our puzzle table. We’re currently working on a Valentine’s project that involves creating a Valentine for each teacher/staff member (total of 26) who works in our building (a combined middle school/high school).
So, the puzzle table has been doubling as an arts/crafts table. If you look closely in the photos, you can catch a glimpse of how our Valentine’s project is coming along.
This puzzle is similar to the North, East, South, West puzzle from several weeks ago. I’ve decided to refer to this specific puzzle as “The Four Seasons Puzzle.” This puzzle can be found in Puzzle Box, Volume 1. This specific puzzle is by Serhiy Grabarchuk.
Students are given a puzzle board (printed on 11 x 17 cardstock) and a set of letter cards (printed on letter sized paper and laminated).
MATH = LOVE RECOMMENDS…
A laminator is a MUST-HAVE for me as a math teacher! I spent my first six years as a teacher at a school with a broken laminator, so I had to find a way to laminate things myself.
I’ve had several laminators over the years. I currently use a Scotch laminator at home and a Swingline laminator at school.
I highly recommend splurging a bit on the actual laminator and buying the cheapest laminating pouches you can find!
The goal of the puzzle is to place the letters in the grid so that the name of each season (summer, autumn, winter, and spring) can be traced out by moving one space at a time, vertically, diagonally, or horizontally.
One of my students who makes sure to check out the puzzle on the puzzle table every single week made sure to tell me that this week’s puzzle was the first in a while that she had been unable to solve on the first day.
You can print it on letter sized paper by changing the scale percentage. I had to scale it to 65% to make it fit. Be sure you remember what percent you chose because you will need to scale the puzzle pieces to the SAME percent so that the puzzle pieces fit on the puzzle board properly.
I hope you and your students have fun with this puzzle! If you haven’t already, I definitely recommend that you check out the Puzzle Box books. You can get a great taste of what types of puzzles they have to offer you and your students by looking at the free Amazon Preview of Puzzle Box, Volume 1!
Just click the “Look Inside” button for each book. If you’re logged into Amazon, you can click “Surprise Me!” on the left side of the page. This will let you see quite a few of the puzzles inside the book for free. I typed up my first Puzzle Box puzzle from the free preview. Then, I did some more looking around and knew I had to order it!
Full Disclosure: I purchased Puzzle Box, Volume 1 with my own money. I was sent a free copy of Puzzle Box, Volume 2 and Puzzle Box, Volume 3 by the Grabarchuk Family.
Digital Version of Four Seasons Puzzle
Kathy Henderson has created a digital version of the Four Seasons Puzzle in Desmos Activity Builder.
Jeremy Knight has created a Google Slides version of the Four Seasons Puzzle.
Free Download of Four Seasons Puzzle
The puzzle board is designed to print on 11 x 17 cardstock. The puzzle pieces are designed to print on letter sized paper.
Click here to Download
Four Seasons Puzzle Board 11 x 17 (PDF)
1361 downloads – 375.05 KB
Click here to Download
Four Seasons Puzzle Pieces 8.5 x 11 (PDF)
1386 downloads – 73.38 KB
Click here to Download
Four Seasons Puzzle (Editable Publisher Files ZIP)
1171 downloads – 421.23 KB
Want more puzzles? Check out my puzzles page!
Puzzle Solutions
I intentionally do not make answers to the printable puzzles and math activities 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.
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, as fun activities in their workplace, or as a birthday party escape room.
We can't solve this (day three). Any hints?
My kids have concluded this is impossible. Surely not? Any hints?
After several weeks of our family struggling, my daughter Audrey figured it out! Here’s a hint (warning, look away if you don’t want spoilers):
There are probably eight solutions, because of reflections and rotations of our solution. In Audrey’s solution, here’s a hint. The top row is just the letter A, and the next row is G, then M, then U.
Does anyone have an answer key to this puzzle? Thank you!
Sending you an email!