I’ve recommended a number of math and logic puzzles and listed them by grade level on this site. I thought it might be helpful to share specifically about how I’ve used them in my classroom. These puzzles COMBINE math reasoning and critical thinking and even if they make students a bit uncomfortable at first, encouraging them to persevere leads to such positive results! Please don’t avoid using them if math is not your strong suit.
MATH MIND BENDERS
Every year, I’ve started my 5th grade GT pull-out class with the first puzzle in the A-1 workbook. These puzzles look like crosswords or crossnumber puzzles, but there’s much more to solving them. The most difficult part of the puzzle is determining where to start. It requires reading ALL of the clues and considering them as a whole. I always allowed my students to work in pairs to solve these, though some chose to work independently. Hints are provided, so it’s easy to help students when they get stuck even if you as the teacher are a bit clueless!
Some of my students were not as strong in math and resisted the challenge at first. However, with a few hints and some encouragement, all of my students experienced some level of success with these puzzles and benefited from stepping out of their comfort zones (see “First Day Talks” in this post). I made consumable paper copies of these and sent them home so that parents could see the level of challenge. You can view a sample HERE.
MATH PERPLEXORS
Like the original Perplexors, these logic puzzles include problem-solving charts that have students “cross out to eliminate” and “circle when correct.” However, Math Perplexors add math computation and problem-solving to the critical thinking process!
My students loved the original Perplexors as well as Math Perplexors, and the many levels allowed for differentiation within my gifted classroom. In this blog post, I explain how I slipped paper copies of these puzzles into sheet protectors to create a LOGIC CENTER in my classroom. It saved time and paper and allowed students to advance to higher-level puzzles on their own.
What’s great about these is that the presentation of the problem is novel. At first, students may think they see the answers immediately but then realize the problem involves more than a glance. I began using these in the lower grades (K-3), and workbooks are available for students through grade 12. These always made great brainteasers and warm-up activities. I would place them under the document camera and students just drew their own Venn diagrams. The pages could also be put into sheet protectors for use with dry-erase markers. Here is a video showing the problem-solving process.
I’ve written about how I’ve used this for team problem-solving. The problems require students to work cooperatively (not always a strong suit for high-ability students) and incorporate many different math concepts and skills with critical thinking. I highly recommend this book for GT grades 3 and up.
BALANCE BENDERS and SOLVE ME PUZZLES (online)
These are somewhat similar, and I recommend both. Math equations are presented as shapes on a balance scale or dangling from a mobile. In Balance Benders, students do not solve for the value of each shape, but instead determine equalities, great for algebraic thinking. The Critical Thinking Company has shared digital samples here in their online playroom. In the online Solve Me puzzles, solutions are numeric values of shapes, and the complexity increases as you advance from explorer to master level! Students can also build their own mobile equations.
There are many more fantastic online math and logic puzzles listed HERE, and – if you are new to this site, don’t miss this post: Beyond Sudoku: Kakuro and Futoshiki. Unlike Sudoku, which only involves logical thinking, these puzzles also involve math computation.
What math + logic puzzles and problems do you use with your students? Leave a comment if you can add to these!