About Dots and Boxes

Dots and boxes is a classic pencil-and-paper game which goes by a variety of different names including dots, boxes, pigs in a pen, the game of dots, or dots and dashes.

The game was originally named “la pipopipette” when it was published in the 19th century by Edouard Lucas, a French mathematician.

Instructions and Scoring

Like the original dots and boxes game, this is a paper and pencil game for two players. Take turns drawing a line from one dot to another on the grid. If your line completes a box, write your initials in the box and take an extra turn.

Each completed square is worth one point. Earn an additional bonus point for each image of a math symbol in your squares. Once the grid is completely filled, the player with the most points wins.

I would recommend placing this puzzle in a dry erase pocket when using it in your classroom.

More Seasonal Versions of Dots and Boxes

I am currently working on creating more seasonal versions of the classic game of dots and boxes. Here are some other versions I have posted:

• 
  2025 Dots and Boxes Game
• 
  Christmas Tree Dots and Boxes Game
• 
  Fall Dots and Boxes Game
• 
  Hanukkah Dots and Boxes Game
• 
  Kwanzaa Dots and Boxes Game
• 
  Math Symbol Dots and Boxes Game
• 
  Snowflake Dots and Boxes Game
• 
  Thanksgiving Dots and Boxes Game
• 
  Veterans Day Dots and Boxes Game
• 
  Winter Dots and Boxes Game

Puzzle Instructions

Use a standard set of 12 pentominoes to form the image of an airplane on the provided grid. Pieces may be flipped or rotated, but they may not overlap one another.

Puzzle Source

I discovered this pentominoes airplane design on the Pentamania Blog.

How I Use This Puzzle with Students

Every week, I choose a few different logic puzzles to put out for my students to work on. I call this the “Puzzle of the Week” section of my dry erase board.

Usually, I try to pick a pentomino puzzle, a printable puzzle for students to do on paper, and a number puzzle with movable pieces.

I usually print three copies of each pentomino puzzle, and I hang it on the board with a magnetic pocket from Charles Leonard holding a set of pentominoes pieces for each copy of the puzzle.

Students just unclip the puzzle page and grab the entire pocket of pentominoes pieces to take back to their seats.

Printing and Prepping the Pentominoes Puzzles

11 x 17 Version

This pentominoes puzzle is designed to print on 11 x 17 inch paper. I print all of my pentominoes puzzles on 11 x 17 cardstock for extra durability, but regular 11 x 17 copy paper will work just fine as well. (If you don’t have the ability to print on 11 x 17 paper, keep reading for an alternative printing option!)

All of my pentominoes puzzles are sized for plastic pentominoes made up of 1-inch squares.

If you don’t have a class set of plastic pentominoes, I do have a printable version of 1-inch pentominoes available to download and print. Please be aware that you MUST allow students to turn over the printed pentominoes pieces in order to solve the puzzle! This is less obvious than with the plastic pentominoes pieces.

Letter Sized Version

Since many teachers have told me that they do not have access to a copy machine or printer which prints on 11 x 17 paper, I have also uploaded a letter-sized version below which prints on 8.5 x 11 inch paper. You will have to trim and tape or glue the two letter-sized pages together to form the pentominoes puzzle board.

Hints for Solving

Pentominoes puzzles can be quite tricky to solve. It’s not unusual to hear that students have worked on a puzzle for over 30+ minutes without finding a solution.

While some students can handle this level of perseverance, other students might benefit from a few hints in solving the puzzle. I have created a set of 4 printable hint cards that can be used with students to give them (or yourself!) a small piece of the solution.

I do find that the more experience students have with working pentominoes puzzles, the less they need the hints!

The hint cards do drastically cut down on the necessary solving time for this puzzle. I prefer to give students one hint card each day. This means that the first day I put out a new pentominoes puzzle that students only have one hint card to look at. But by the end of the week, students have access to all four different hint cards.

Instructions

Each 30 Square puzzle consists of a 3×3 square grid with numbers appearing in each square.

Add one additional digit to some of the cells so that the sum of numbers in each row and column of the square equals 30.

In the above example, the original top row of the square was 1, 1, 1 which sums to 3. If you look at the puzzle solution, you can see that the second one needs to be changed to a 19 and the third one needs to be changed to a 10. Now 1+19+10 = 30.

It’s quite easy to make any single row or column sum to 30. The challenge is to make EVERY single row and column sum to 30.

Printing Options

This set of 30 Square Puzzles features thirty different puzzles that are arranged 6 to a page. You can print a single page of puzzles to solve or the entire packet of puzzles.

Maze Instructions

Find a single, continuous path through the maze from the top of the star maze to the bottom.

Printing Options

There are 10 different levels of difficulty that this star maze can be printed in. All 10 versions are in the same PDF file. Just scroll until you find the level of intricacy that looks right for you or for whomever you are printing the puzzle for.

For my high school students, I will be posting this as an early finisher activity. I will be printing off one of the hardest versions for them.

For my five-year-old son, on the other hand, I will likely print off the first or second version of the maze.

10 Levels of Difficulty

Here is a visual reference the ten levels of difficulty of the printable star maze puzzle ranging from Level 1 to Level 10.

What are 6×6 Sudoku Puzzles?

The goal of a 6×6 sudoku puzzle is to complete the 6×6 grid so that each row, each column, and each outlined 2×3 rectangle contains exactly one of each number between 1 and 6. Numbers cannot be repeated in any row, column, or 2×3 outlined rectangle.

6×6 Sudoku puzzles are a simplified version of the traditional sudoku puzzle (usually played on a 9×9 grid). The easy level of 6×6 sudoku puzzles are targeted at kids between the ages of 6 and 10. They can also be used as an introduction to sudoku puzzles for older kids and adults.

Older and more experienced puzzle solvers can still enjoy the 6×6 sudoku puzzles. But I would recommend trying one of the harder levels of puzzles. I like using 6×6 sudoku puzzles with older students as a brain break activity or class starter since the amount of time needed to solve a puzzle is substantially less than the 9×9 sudoku grid puzzle.

Working with younger students? I suggest checking out my 4×4 printable sudoku puzzles.

Printing Options

These printable 6×6 sudoku puzzles are formatted 6 puzzles to a page. You can print a single page to work on, or you can print an entire packet of 48 puzzles.

The puzzles are sorted as Easy, Medium, Hard, and Challenging. There are two pages (12 puzzles total) for each level of 6 x 6 sudoku puzzle.

About Dots and Boxes

Dots and boxes is a classic pencil-and-paper game which goes by a variety of different names including dots, boxes, pigs in a pen, the game of dots, or dots and dashes.

The game was originally named “la pipopipette” when it was published in the 19th century by Edouard Lucas, a French mathematician.

Instructions and Scoring

Like the original dots and boxes game, this is a paper and pencil game for two players. Take turns drawing a line from one dot to another on the grid. If your line completes a box, write your initials in the box and take an extra turn.

Each completed square is worth one point. Earn an additional bonus point for each 2025 in your squares. Once the grid is completely filled, the player with the most points wins.

I would recommend placing this puzzle in a dry erase pocket when using it in your classroom.

More Seasonal Versions of Dots and Boxes

I am currently working on creating more seasonal versions of the classic game of dots and boxes. Here are some other versions I have posted:

• 
  2025 Dots and Boxes Game
• 
  Christmas Tree Dots and Boxes Game
• 
  Fall Dots and Boxes Game
• 
  Hanukkah Dots and Boxes Game
• 
  Kwanzaa Dots and Boxes Game
• 
  Math Symbol Dots and Boxes Game
• 
  Snowflake Dots and Boxes Game
• 
  Thanksgiving Dots and Boxes Game
• 
  Veterans Day Dots and Boxes Game
• 
  Winter Dots and Boxes Game

Instructions

You can think of this 2025 maze worksheet as a single maze or four separate mazes. This idea is that you start solving the maze in the upper right corner by entering the 2.

Solving the 2 maze will lead you to the 0 maze which must now be solved. Continue until you have traveled through all of the digits in 2025.

For years, I have used hidato puzzles in my classroom, and they have always been a HUGE hit with students. I recently learned how to generate shaped hidato puzzles.

Have a different shape of puzzle your students might be interested? Send me an email, and I might be able to make it happen!

What are Hidato Puzzles?

Hidato Puzzles (or Hidoku Puzzles) are the creation of Dr. Gyora M. Benedek, an Israeli mathematician. The Hebrew word “hida” means riddle. In a hidato puzzle, you are given a grid with a selection of the numbers already filled in.

Your task is to fill in the missing numbers so that each number connects to the next number either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. 1 must connect to 2, 2 must connect to 3, and so on.

When I use Hidato Puzzles with students, I often have them draw in the lines between the numbers in order to help them check their solutions.

2025 Hidato Puzzle Instructions

Fill in the missing numbers in the number-shaped grids so that each number connects to the next number either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

This 2025 puzzle is actually four hidato puzzles in one!

For these specific puzzles, students are arranging the numbers from 1 to 47 in the two-shaped grids, the numbers from 1 to 52 in the zero-shaped grid, and the numbers 1 to 51 in the five-shaped grid so that consecutive numbers touch either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

You could definitely think of this puzzle as making a “chain of numbers.”

Four Levels of Puzzles and Printing Options

These 2025 logic puzzles are available to download in four different levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Challenging.

As the levels progress, you are given fewer and fewer numbers on the grid to begin with. This means that much more logic is required to solve the puzzle.

For most students, I would recommend starting with an easy level puzzle unless your students have solved numerous hidato puzzles in the past.

What are Factor Tree Puzzles?

I first learned about factor tree puzzles in 2018 when I attended a Math Teachers’ Circle Summer Workshop with Dr. Harold Reiter.

In Dr. Reiter’s version of these puzzles, each variable stands for a unique digit. You must determine the values for each digit so that the numbers form a valid factor tree where all circled numbers are prime.

These puzzles, while fun, are VERY CHALLENGING because you do not even know the starting number of the factor tree. I decided to make an easier version of these puzzles to help celebrate the new calendar year: 2025!

2025 Factor Tree Puzzle Instructions

For this 2025 Factor Tree Puzzle, you must find the missing values to create a valid factor tree for 2025. Each variable stands for a unique digit. Circled numbers are prime.

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 the new year – 2025!

Options for Printing and Prepping the 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.

If you plan on reusing the puzzle pieces from year to year, I highly suggest running the pages through a laminator first to make the pieces more durable.

If you are giving each student their own copy of the puzzle, this is entirely unnecessary. Just print on some pretty, colorful paper and GO!

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.