This week’s puzzle is a “shape puzzle.” To fill in the shape puzzle, you need to fill in every blank shape. Moreover, the same shape in the puzzle must always contain the same number: so, for example, if one of the squares contains a 3, so must every other square.

Shape puzzles are a staple in my teaching, because they both gently introduce children to algebraic concepts and allow kids to use backwards instead of forwards reasoning. Backwards reasoning always requires more fluency and understanding, and as a result, it’s very worth practicing once an initial mental model is in place.

You can click on the picture above to open a pdf of the puzzle.

Here’s the solution to the puzzle:

Please let me know if you have requests for specific puzzles (types of puzzles, operations used in puzzles, numbers used in puzzles, etc.) in the comments!

Time for a new math puzzle! This week, we have a true or false equation grid: each square contains an equation, and the job of the puzzle-solver is to spot the wrong equations and then to color them in. If done correctly, the wrong equations form a pattern! For my classes, this pattern is often a letter or a number, although that’s not the case in the puzzle below.

These grids are an excellent way to make sure that a student has a robust, relational view of the equals sign. They are also a good spot check for whether they understand the difference between expressions like 2﹣3 and 3﹣2.

Staying on theme with my recent posts, this week’s grid only uses addition and subtraction:

Click on the image to open a pdf of the same puzzle.

And as usual, here’s the solution if you need. In this solution, the green squares are correct and the red squares are incorrect:

It’s time for our weekly puzzle! This time, our puzzle is a math crossword. Since we’ve been talking about addition, the puzzle only uses addition and subtraction.

Click on the picture to get a copy of the puzzle as a pdf.

And here’s the solution in case you want to check it: