Three Squared Puzzle
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Last week, I used this Three Squared Puzzle with my students as one of our puzzles of the week. I thought I should share it with everyone here on the blog as well!
How does the Three Squared Puzzle work? You are given nine squares. Your task is to arrange the nine squares to assemble one large square with exactly three different pictures on each horizontal and vertical line, and on both long diagonals.
I ran across this puzzle in Totally Tough Brainteasers by L.P. Mochalov. I’m really enjoying the puzzles by this puzzle author, and I have several more puzzles by Mochalov that I will be sharing soon that I have adapted for my classroom.
I printed the nine squares on separate sheets of paper. I laminated them and added ceramic disc magnets to the back of each piece so that students could move them around while solving the puzzle.
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!
I also created a smaller version of the three squared puzzle that prints on a single page so that students can work on the puzzle individually.
My students played with the puzzle on and off all week, but I don’t think a single one of my students managed to figure it out. I guess it’s a harder puzzle than it looks!
Free Download of Three Squared Puzzle
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Three Squared Puzzle (PDF)
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Three Squared Puzzle (Editable Publisher File ZIP)
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Want even more puzzles? Check out my puzzles page!
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!
Velcro dots on the back works well for carpeted walls too! Just wondering…Sarah…is there more than one solution? Nice linkage to Sudoku puzzles and Latin Squares.
Regards, Matt.
Great idea about the carpeted walls, Matt!
I believe there is only one solution, but I have not verified that myself.
Thank you so much for sharing! I am a new 5th grade teacher and I do a math puzzle a week. I love this idea but I don’t know that I understand the directions completely. Each 3×3 square looks different already so how do you create the larger one with different pictures?? Am I missing something?
You put the small squares together to make a large 3 x 3 square. In total, it will actually be 9 small squares x 9 small squares.
I just emailed you with a few more details!
Thank you for sharing this great activity.
What is the answer
I can only share puzzle solutions with teachers. If you are a teacher, please send me information about where you teach so I can share the solution with you!