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Triangular Turkey Puzzle

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Spark a math debate this Thanksgiving with this Triangular Turkey Puzzle from Martin Gardner!

triangular turkey puzzle for thanksgiving
thanksgiving activities puzzles and games.

Looking for more Thanksgiving activities and puzzles for your classroom? Here’s a few examples of the other activities I have created for this fun math holiday.

Puzzle Instructions

It’s November which means it’s finally time to pull out this Triangular Turkey puzzle for Thanksgiving.

How many different triangles can you find in this picture of a Thanksgiving turkey?

Triangular Turkey Puzzle

Puzzle Source

I ran across this triangular turkey puzzle in a Martin Gardner book (Perplexing Puzzles and Tantalizing Teasers) this summer, and I knew I had to add it to my list of activities for November.

I’m looking forward to some interesting conversation and debates with my students over this puzzle! This isn’t a super complex puzzle, so it would be suitable as a great class opener.

fun geometry puzzles. 

Looking for more printable geometry puzzles for your classroom? Here’s just a few examples of other geometry puzzles I have shared!

Puzzle Solutions

ANsWer key link

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!

Sarah Carter teaches high school math in her hometown of Coweta, Oklahoma. She currently teaches AP Precalculus, AP Calculus AB, and Statistics. She is passionate about sharing creative and hands-on teaching ideas with math teachers around the world through her blog, Math = Love.

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7 Comments

  1. I love this idea, this reminds me of the Pythagorean triangle stacking activity that I do with my Math 8 kids as an extension.

  2. This is a great activity Sarah! I agree that it would be a good warmup because it could help all students participate in a conversation at tables and in front of the whole classroom. It seems like math doesn’t get related very much to current events, so I think this is a fun way for students to relate math to the holidays. Another addition to this activity could be asking what other shapes students see to make the activity a little longer.

  3. I love this activity! I think it is important to have some puzzles and activities that can be implemented into the math classroom that still has some relation to the material. I have recently done this with some of my math classes in Algebra 1 and Geometry classes with the use of plotting points in the cartesian plane to make an image as well as having students solve algebraic puzzles and color coordinating their answers with an image!

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