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In this fun winter logic puzzle, students must arrange the provided puzzle pieces into a 3×3 grid so that the pieces match and form pictures of winter hats along each edge.
Puzzle Instructions
Cut apart the provided pieces and assemble them into a 3×3 square so that the puzzle pieces match along each edge to form pictures of winter hats.
The winter hat images were created by Gung Yoga, Frank Hamaty, and Rafi Al Hakim. I found them via the Noun Project which operates under CC BY 3.0.
Options for Printing and Prepping this Puzzle
There are several options for printing and prepping this puzzle.
The easiest way to distribute this puzzle to students is to print the page with the puzzle pieces, have each student cut out their own pieces, and let them build their square grid on their desks.
I printed my puzzle pieces on Astrobrights colored paper to add a pop of color to the puzzle, and I ran the pieces through the laminator for added durability.
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!
If you are looking to display the resulting work or if you would like students to keep their work in a folder or notebook, you might want to print the next page in the PDF file which includes a 3 x 3 puzzle grid for students to build their solution upon or glue their pieces on after solving.
In my opinion, this page is most useful for those who are opting to display or keep the resulting solved puzzle. If you are reusing the puzzle pieces with different classes, I would just put the puzzle pieces in bags and forego the printable template.
If you are working with younger students or with a population of students who needs a bit of starting place for their puzzle solving, there is another version of the grid in the file that shows which puzzle piece belongs in the top left corner of the square.
Including this piece of information will drastically reduce the amount of time it takes older students to solve the puzzle, so I would be very discerning about whether your students need this scaffolding or not.
Ultimately, you know best what your students need. When I first started sharing puzzles I created for my classroom 8 years ago, I never imagined that they would be used in so many diverse classrooms around the world.
So many of you are using puzzles that I designed for my high school students with students as young as 2nd and 3rd grade. I am continually impressed by this.
I will say that my four year old helped me solve this winter hat puzzle when it was still in the testing stage. He didn’t complete the puzzle by himself, but he was able to work alongside me to solve the puzzle together.
And, this puzzle wouldn’t be complete without also thanking my husband Shaun for helping me with some coding that will let me create a bunch more of these square edge matching puzzles in the future for different seasons and holidays.
Free Download of Winter Hat Puzzle (PDF)
The winter hat puzzle is available to download as a PDF file. Unfortunately, there is not an editable version of this specific puzzle available to download.
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.
