In The Math Behind the Fun and Games ~ Lessons for Masterminds Who Love Wordle, the focus was on introducing students to combinatorics, the branch of math that is behind many popular daily puzzles.
Here I’ll share three different ways to present daily math puzzles so that younger students can join in and older students are encouraged to extend their thinking. These represent just a few examples, and I hope they will spark even more ideas. I’ve focused on variations of the daily math puzzle Nerdle. If you are not familiar with Nerdle, here is a short video tutorial you can watch.
(1) PARTIAL PUZZLE ~ THREE GUESSES
Using CREATE YOUR OWN NERDLE, you can create a game to match your students’ abilities. For younger students, choose just two operations (+ and -) and 6 rows rather than 8. Once you have a puzzle created, you can extend thinking by having students make more than one guess. This is also a great way to teach the game.
First, display your puzzle by going to the link created uniquely for your created puzzle. Next, depending on your student’s level, plug in a first guess, one that gives hints but not too much information. Have students share what they KNOW from the first guess. Then, have students formulate THREE logical “next guesses.” Allow ample time for this as it is easier to make one guess than three. Finally, choose a student to share one guess and plug it in. After each guess has been made, have students cross off any guesses that no longer work. Continue in this way until the solution is obvious. Prompt students new to the game to explain when and why they are positive that they have the correct solution. MINI NERDLE would also work for this activity.
(2) PUZZLE BOARD ~ HOW MANY POSSIBILITIES?
You can also create a bulletin board based on the same idea. Create a puzzle and post a predetermined first guess, one that does not give too much away. Then invite students to add “next guesses” to the board on sticky notes, making sure each of their guesses has not already been posted. As a warm-up activity, give students a set amount of time to add guesses. Tell students there is no limit to how many guesses they can make as long as the guess isn’t already there.
At some chosen time (e.g., at the end of the day or after lunch), use the link you created to display the puzzle on your screen and randomly choose one of the student’s guesses to plug in. From there, have students determine which posted guesses would still work based on the new information you have. Continue in this manner until the solution is found. An ongoing activity like this would be a great complement to the combinatorics lessons since it reinforces the idea that there can be many possibilities.
You could display a Nerdle and a Wordle, with partial puzzles posted for each. If I did this, I might allow students to post possibilities throughout the day and then wait until the following class to “play their guesses.” (Note: If you haven’t seen Matt Coaty’s Which One Doesn’t Belong bulletin board, it’s a fantastic math activity-turned-bulletin board.)
(3) PUZZLE PARTNERS ~ WARM-UP
INSTANT NERDLE is a quicker version in which the correct digits and/or operations are given, and the solution is found by rearranging what is already there. If your students like a little friendly competition, pair them up with iPads or computers to guess and have them compete to be the first “team” to get the answer.
Do you have other ideas for presenting daily math puzzles in a new way? Your comments are always welcome! If you are new to this site, you might like to take a video tour to see what’s here!