Puzzles and Riddles

1. 2048
This online game and app challenges players to slide numbered tiles around a
grid until they reach 2048. It’s highly addictive and not as easy as it sounds, so consider
sending it home with students or assigning it after the rest of the lesson is over. It
encourages students to think strategically about their next move, and it’s a great tool for
learning about exponents.

2. Magic Squares
Magic square shave been around for thousands of years, and were introduced to
Western civilization by translated Arabic texts during the Renaissance. While magic
squares can be a variety of sizes, the three-by-three grid is the smallest possible
version and is the most accessible for young students.

This is also a great math puzzle to try if your students are tactile learners. Using
recycled bottle caps, label each with a number from one to nine. Have your students
arrange them in a three-by-three square so that the sum of any three caps in a line
(horizontally, vertically and diagonally) equals 15.
3. Join the dots
This puzzle challenges students to connect all the dots in a three-by-three grid
using only four straight lines. While it may sound easy, chances are that it will take your
class a while to come up with the solution. (Hint: it requires some “out of the box”
thinking.)

4. Turn the fish

This puzzle seems simple, but it just might stump your students. After setting up
sticks in the required order, challenge them to make the fish swim in the other direction
-- by moving just three matchsticks.

5. KenKen
KenKen is a “grid-based numerical puzzle” that looks like a combined number
cross and sudoku grid. Invented in 2004 by a famous Japanese math instructor named
Tetsuya Miyamoto, it is featured daily in The New York Times and other newspapers. It
challenges students to practice their basic math skills while they apply logic and critical
thinking skills to the problem.

Math puzzles are one of the best -- and oldest -- ways to encourage student
engagement. Brain teasers, logic puzzles and math riddles give students challenges
that encourage problem-solving and logical thinking. They can be used in classroom
gamification, and to inspire students to tackle problems they might have previously seen
as too difficult.

Math games can help students build a basic understanding of essential math
concepts, and as another study shows, can also help them retain concepts longer.

Many of the math puzzles above allow students to practice essential addition,
subtraction, multiplication and division skills, while advanced or modified problems can
be used to introduce pre-algebraic concepts and advanced logic skills.

References:
20 Best Math Puzzles to Engage and Challenge Your Students. (n.d.). Prodigy Education.

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