Puzzles for Teachers
Browse an extensive collection of printable puzzles, brain teasers, mazes, crosswords, digital activities and a whole lot more to challenge your primary students in fresh and fun ways!
This teaching resource collection is teacher-created, with curriculum-aligned and editable resources available for both lesson planning and adding to your fast finisher activity box!
Curious about using puzzles in your classroom or looking for fresh ideas? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!
Types of Puzzles
There's a whole host of puzzles out there you can use to get your students more engaged in learning, develop problem-solving skills and reinforce the concepts you're teaching! Here are a few favourites from our teacher team (and you'll find printable versions of many of these in this collection)!
- Picture puzzles — Picture puzzles are a great teaching tool that require kids to use visual perception and problem-solving skills to identify patterns or differences in a set of pictures.
- Crossword puzzles — Often used by adults, these puzzles are kid-friendly too! They offer written clues and require students to fill in a grid with words that intersect.
- Tangram puzzles — These challenging puzzles for kids involve using a set of geometric shapes to create a larger picture or design.
- Logic puzzles — This learning tool requires kids to use reasoning and deduction to solve a problem. They usually involve a set of clues that need to be used to figure out the solution.
- Word searches — In this type of puzzle, a grid of letters is given with a list of words to find hidden within it. Students are challenged to go on the hunt for the word, often reading up, down, diagonally and sometimes even backward!
- Spot the difference — A popular feature in kids' magazines, these require our students to find the differences between two nearly identical pictures.
- Sequence puzzles — Sequence puzzles involve arranging a series of objects or symbols in a particular order, based on a set of rules or patterns. For example, students may practise skip counting as they place puzzle pieces in order based on the numbers displayed on each piece.
- Maze puzzles — Yes, mazes count as puzzles! They challenge kids to find their way through a maze to reach a goal or endpoint.
- Matching games — This is another type of puzzle you may not think of as a puzzle per se, but it is! Matching games involve finding pairs of matching items, such as shapes, colours, or numbers, in a set of cards or objects.
- Tarsia puzzles — Similar to jigsaw puzzles, tarsia puzzles are made up of irregularly shaped pieces that fit together in a specific way to form a larger picture or pattern. This type of puzzle has a twist, however! In a Tarsia puzzle, each piece contains a problem or question related to a particular topic or subject area. The students must match the pieces together by finding the correct answer or solution to each problem or question. Once all the pieces have been matched, they form a larger picture or pattern that provides a visual representation of the topic or concept being studied.
How Do You Use Puzzles in the Classroom?
Whether you're using tarsia puzzles to teach maths or crossword puzzles in your reading rotations, this is a versatile learning tool! Here are a few of the times they can come in handy:
- Introducing new concepts
- Reviewing concepts students have learned
- Reinforcing problem-solving skills
- Collaborative learning
- Learning through play
- Differentiated instruction
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Classroom Icebreaker Game – Who Hacked Pixel Jump 5000?
A retro-style mystery game where students combine individual clues to reveal the solution.
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Mini-Mystery – Who Killed the Class Plant?
A fun, logic-based activity where students read clues to solve the mystery.
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Mini-Mystery – Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty?
A fun, logic-based activity where students read clues to solve the mystery.
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Complex Dot-to-dot – Square Numbers (Skateboarder) – Worksheet
A complex dot-to-dot where students order square numbers.
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Complex Dot-to-Dot – Fractions and Decimals Puzzle for Year 6
Challenge year 6 students with a complex dot-to-dot where students demonstrate understanding of fractions and decimals.
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Complex Dot-to-dot – Skip Counting by Twos (Seahorses) – Worksheet
A complex dot-to-dot where students demonstrate skip counting by twos.
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Australian Map Puzzle
Help your students build understanding of the map of Australia with this interactive game.
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Percy's Place Value Puzzle
A worksheet to use to consolidate student understanding of place value to the thousands.
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Winter Paralympics Word Search – Early Years
Build vocabulary related to the Winter Paralympic Games with this engaging word search activity for younger students.
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Syllable Activity – Animal Puzzle
Build students phonological awareness with this syllable activity where students build animal pictures with the number of syllables.
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Alphabet Sounds Puzzle
Dive into letter-sound correspondence with your students using this alphabet sounds puzzle.
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Scientific Method Crossword Puzzle
Use a Scientific Method crossword puzzle to review key vocabulary words surrounding science inquiry.
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Number Ordering Puzzles
Help students order numbers up to 20 with a set of 8 cut-and-paste number ordering puzzles.
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Summer Paralympics Word Search - Upper Years
Introduce the events held during the Paralympic Games with our summer sports word search for older students.
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Unit Fraction Puzzles
Find matching representations of fractions on a number line and visual models while piecing together a 4-piece puzzle.
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Perimeter of Composite Shapes Maze
Use this perimeter maze when teaching your students how to calculate the perimeter of composite shapes.
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Perimeter and Area Digital Puzzles
Give students practice finding the area and perimeter of squares and rectangles with these digital area and perimeter puzzles.
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Spooky 3-Digit Subtraction - Maze Game
Practise three-digit subtraction with regrouping skills with printable Halloween Subtraction Maze worksheets.
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Weathering, Erosion and Deposition – Word Search
Strengthen your students' understanding of weathering, erosion and deposition terms with a vocabulary word search.
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Basketball Crossword
Use this basketball-themed crossword as a fast finisher activity.
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Natural Resources Word Search
Review the different natural resources with a word search.
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Word Chain Mazes - Worksheets
Colour a path through the maze by identifying the changing phoneme to create a continuous word chain.
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Complex Dot-to-dot – Skip Counting by Fives (Turtle) – Worksheet
A complex dot-to-dot where students demonstrate skip counting by fives.
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Complex Dot-to-dot – Skip Counting by Twos (Car) – Worksheet
A complex dot-to-dot where students demonstrate skip counting by twos.
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Organic Shape Search Worksheet
A fun art activity to explore organic shape.
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Grammar Word Search with Solution
A word search to help your students learn a variety of grammatical terms.
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Australian Money Word Search with Solution
A word search to help your students to learn what the Australian currency looks like and their corresponding names.
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Easter Logic Puzzle Pack
Challenge your students to some serious thinking with an engaging Easter Logic Puzzle Pack.
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Erosion Crossword Puzzle
Review vocabulary related to erosion with a printable Erosion Crossword Puzzle and answer key.
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Who Pollinates Plants? Word Search
Introduce your students to a world of pollinators with a printable Who Pollinates Plants? Word Search.
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Index Notation Worksheet — Tarsia Puzzle
Share this index notation worksheet with your students to give them practice evaluating exponential expressions in a fun puzzle format.
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Easter Puzzles Activity Sheet
Challenge and entertain your students with an activity sheet packed with a variety of activities and Easter puzzles.