5 Puzzles to Help Kids Practice Math

Kids are naturally drawn to puzzles.  Not all kids, of course, but there is something about puzzles that naturally draws in a lot of kids.  And adults.  Yes, I admit to putting together all of the puzzles when we’re cleaning.  (I absolutely have to make sure all the pieces are there…).  Puzzles are naturally great mathematical concepts in the first place but many can be adapted slightly to use with math.

 

DIY Addition Puzzle

You guys know I’m all about the DIY stuff.  I love making things, especially if it doesn’t involve buying anything extra!  We have these simple 12 piece puzzles (and a LOT of them) so I thought I’d put them to good use.  The boys have outgrown this type of puzzle, for the most part.  We’ve contemplated giving them away (we have so many of them) but it hasn’t happened.  Well, why not add an extra level of challenge, right?

 

The idea is that the sum goes from 1 to 12, left to right, top to bottom.

 

Complete the puzzle and flip it over!  If it looks right, you completed all the problems correctly!!  Simple and easy.

 

Printable Math Puzzles

Free printables are abundant these days and there is no shortage of math puzzles.  This comes from my Fire Safety Printable Pack although there are similar puzzles in most of my packs.  Just cut and hand over the pieces.  This one is just counting so they’d put it in order from 1-10.  Some have skip counting, some addition or multiplication.  There are many variations!

 

One to One Addition Puzzles

This spider math puzzle set is from Life Over C’s.  I love that it is self-correcting!  Very simple, match the equation to the answer!  The spider theme is a bit creepy, but some kids love creepy crawlies, so whatever works!

Numeric Tile Game

I just spied this game on amazon called Mobi the Numeric Tile Game and I thought it looked really neat yet pretty simple.  Plus, it could be used for math in many ways above and beyond the game.  Disclaimer – we have not tried this.

 

 

Shape and Money Puzzles

Self correcting shape AND money puzzles.  Yes, yes, yes.  Love these.  Don’t miss these Coin Puzzle Printables from This Reading Mama!

 

Logic Puzzles

I love logic puzzles like SuDoKu and have always tried to provide thinking games like this for my kids.  I have SuDoKu in so many sets, I couldn’t list them all  (I’ll try one day though).  This is from my community helper set which is free.

 

This is day 6 of my 10 day series on Making Math Fun.  Don’t miss the rest of the topics!