Whale Pentominoes Puzzle

Bring some under the sea fun to your classroom with this whale pentominoes puzzle. Can you use a standard set of 12 pentominoes to build the shape of a whale?

This puzzle is part of a collection of animal-shaped pentominoes puzzles available here on my blog.

Puzzle Instructions

The goal of this pentominoes whale puzzle is to construct the shape of a whale using a standard set of twelve pentominoes. The pentominoes may be flipped or rotated, but they are not allowed to overlap one another.

The square that is colored in black represents the whale’s eye. It is not to be left uncovered when the puzzle is successfully solved.

Puzzle Source

I originally found a picture of this whale pentomino puzzle through an online Google Images Search which led me to a website about “Pentamini.” I decided to format the puzzle as a printable classroom resource to share with you.

How I Use This Puzzle with Students

My students will be tackling this pentomino puzzle as one of this week’s puzzles of the week. This week we are also tackling the Magic H Puzzle and a Fall Square Puzzle.

Last week, we tackled our very first pentomino puzzle of the school year: the butterfly pentomino puzzle.

I typically hang three copies of the pentomino puzzle on the dry erase board along with three sets of pentominoes in a magnetic pocket from Charles Leonard.

Students can grab a copy of the puzzle and the entire pocket of pentominoes and take them back to their table to work on.

Printing and Prepping the Pentominoes Puzzles

11 x 17 Version

This pentominoes puzzle is designed to print on 11 x 17 inch paper. I print all of my pentominoes puzzles on 11 x 17 cardstock for extra durability, but regular 11 x 17 copy paper will work just fine as well. (If you don’t have the ability to print on 11 x 17 paper, keep reading for an alternative printing option!)

All of my pentominoes puzzles are sized for plastic pentominoes made up of 1-inch squares.

If you don’t have a class set of plastic pentominoes, I do have a printable version of 1-inch pentominoes available to download and print. Please be aware that you MUST allow students to turn over the printed pentominoes pieces in order to solve the puzzle! This is less obvious than with the plastic pentominoes pieces.

MATH = LOVE RECOMMENDS…

Amazon offers several brands of plastic pentominoes which I recommend. Each brand is sold in a tub containing six sets of twelve pentominoes each for a total of 72 pentomino pieces.

• Learning Resources Rainbow Pentominoes
• Learning Advantage Pentominoes
• Didax Colorful Pentominoes – CURRENTLY THE CHEAPEST!

Want each student to have their own set of pentominoes? I also offer a set of free printable one-inch pentominoes pieces which can be laminated or printed on cardstock for durability.

Letter Sized Version

Since many teachers have told me that they do not have access to a copy machine or printer which prints on 11 x 17 paper, I have also uploaded a letter-sized version below which prints on 8.5 x 11 inch paper. You will have to trim and tape or glue the two letter-sized pages together to form the pentominoes puzzle board.

Hints for Solving

Pentominoes puzzles which use an entire set of twelve standard pentominoes can be quite tricky to solve. It’s not unusual to hear that students have worked on a puzzle for over 30+ minutes without finding a solution.

While some students can handle this level of perseverance, other students might benefit from a few hints in solving the puzzle. I have created a set of 4 printable hint cards that can be used with students to give them (or yourself!) a small piece of the solution.

I do find that the more experience students have with working pentominoes puzzles, the less they need the hints!