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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Earthly Word Search with Answers
The Earthly Word Search uses scientific vocabulary in a fun way!
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Winter Puzzles Activity Book
Bring learning and seasonal fun together with this winter puzzles activity book to keep students engaged during the colder months.
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Prefix Crossword Puzzle Worksheet
Review vocabulary skills and boost your students’ knowledge of prefixes with a printable crossword puzzle.
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States of Matter Word Search - Lower Years
Use a States of Matter word search to introduce your early learners to new academic vocabulary.
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2D Shape Matching Puzzles
Use these 2D shape puzzles to help familiarise your students with the most common two-dimensional shapes.
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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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Compound Words Crossword Puzzle Pack
Boost vocabulary skills with a pack of printable Compound Word Crossword Puzzles!
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Dividing Decimals Maths Mazes
Review how to divide a decimal by a decimal and a whole number with this set of maths mazes.
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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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Rounding Decimals Number Search Worksheets
Encourage your students to practise rounding decimals to the nearest whole number, tenth and hundredth with this set of number search worksheets.
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Mini-Mystery – Who Owns the Dog? – Interactive PowerPoint
A fun, logic-based activity where students read clues to solve the mystery.
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Area of a Triangle – Differentiated Maths Mazes
Use the area of a triangle formula as you work your way through this set of differentiated maths mazes.
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Cooperation Word Search
Review vocabulary and boost your students’ cooperative interaction skills with a word search worksheet.
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Water Cycle Crossword Puzzle
Review water cycle vocabulary with a water cycle crossword.
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Prefix Puzzles - Match Up Cards
Practise building, reading, and understanding the meaning of words with prefixes with a fun set of prefix puzzles.
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Fractions, Decimals, and Percents Tarsia Puzzle
Practise converting and matching fractions, decimals, and percentages with a fun tarsia puzzle.
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Renewable Energy Word Search
Review science vocabulary terms with an engaging renewable energy word search.
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Basketball Word Search
Have some basketball fun in your classroom with this basketball-themed word search.
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National Tree Day – Environment Word Search
Print a word search to use on National Tree Day or Earth Day to help your students learn about conservation.
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Find the Whole From a Percent — Year 6 Maths Mazes
Print a set of 3 maths mazes for year 6 to practise solving percentage problems.
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Animal Word Search - Sloths
Introduce your students to the world of Sloths with this word search resource.
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Short OO Words - Word Search
Explore words containing some of the most common ‘short oo’ graphemes with this set of differentiated word searches.
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Adverb Crossword – Worksheet
A crossword where all the answers are adverbs.
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Mini-Mystery – Who Won the Race?
A fun, logic-based activity where students read clues to solve the mystery.
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Complex Dot-to-dot – Skip Counting by Threes (Castle) – Worksheet
A complex dot-to-dot where students demonstrate skip counting by threes.
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Complex Dot-to-dot – Skip Counting by Sevens (Wolf) – Worksheet
A complex dot-to-dot where students demonstrate skip counting by sevens.
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NAIDOC Week Connection to Country Crossword Puzzle Worksheet
A NAIDOC Week Connection to Country crossword puzzle worksheet to use with your students.
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Know Your Place Jigsaws
Six mini jigsaw puzzles focusing on different places.
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Dot-to-Dot Drawing - Numbers by 1 - Caterpillar
Join the dots and numbers to make a picture.
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British Colonisation of Australia - Crossword
A crossword activity to use in the classroom when learning about the British Colonisation of Australia.
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Tarsia Division Puzzles
Boost division fact fluency with tarsia division puzzles, a hands-on and engaging way for students to practise their division skills.
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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.