Puzzles Teaching Resources
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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Alphabet Puzzle Activity
A hands-on puzzle to consolidate your students' knowledge of the alphabet.
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Compound Words Tarsia Puzzle
Match the compound words with their matching word parts to solve this Compound Word Tarsia Puzzle.
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Compound Word Puzzles
Have fun combining words to make compound words with a fun set of compound word puzzles.
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Tacky Jumper Problem Solving & Observation Activity
Build visual discrimination skills and focus on attention to detail with an Ugly Christmas jumper Problem-Solving Activity.
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Jingle Jumble - Free Christmas Find-a-Word
Use a Christmas Find-a-Word printable to build vocabulary and spelling skills in your classroom this Christmas season.
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Holiday Maths Puzzle - Addition Up to 10
Review addition facts to 10 with a printable Christmas maths puzzle.
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Remembrance Day Connect the Dot Worksheets
Practice counting up to 50 and create beautiful Remembrance art using a set of printable Remembrance Day Connect the Dots Printables.
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Expanded Form Match Up Puzzles
Practise matching standard numbers to their expanded form with your students using this fun, hands-on number puzzle.
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Halloween Adjectives Word Search - Lower Years
Bring in the Halloween spirit this year, starting with a printable Halloween word search filled with spooky adjectives!
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Fire Safety Word Search
Review important fire safety vocabulary with an engaging word search activity.
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Number Ordering Puzzles - Halloween Theme
Practise counting with a fun set of spook-tacular Halloween number puzzles!
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Subtraction within 100 - Two-Digit Subtraction Puzzles
Practise subtraction strategies with a set of printable maths puzzles.
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Christmas Skip Counting - Printable Puzzles
Grab a set of 10 printable Christmas puzzles to help students skip count in the classroom.
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Coronation Word Search
Learn about the vocabulary around the King's Coronation with this printable word search.
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Easter Picture Puzzles - Numbers 1-20
Practise number recognition with this fun Easter puzzle activity.
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Easter Dot to Dot Worksheets (1s, 2s, 5s and 10s)
Practise counting in 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s with these Easter-themed dot-to-dot worksheets.
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Easter Word Search with Solution
Have some fun with this Easter-themed word search.
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April Fools' Day Word Search
Learn about April Fools’ Day with this handy word search.
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Planet Puzzle Match-Up Activity
Use your knowledge of the solar system to complete 8 different planet puzzles.
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Antonyms Tarsia Puzzle
Match antonym pairs with an engaging opposite words tarsia puzzle.
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International Women’s Day Crossword
Extend your students' knowledge of influential women with this International Women’s Day crossword.
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Synonyms and Antonyms - Printable Puzzles
Turn your language learners into vocabulary superstars with a fun synonym and antonym puzzle activity.
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International Women’s Day Word Search
Build vocabulary skills with this International Women’s Day word search.
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Synonyms Picture Puzzle
Build vocabulary skills with a fun Synonyms Picture Puzzle.
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Valentine’s Day Word Search
Stretch your upper primary students’ vocabulary and reading skills with a sweet Valentine’s Day word search.
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Easter Egg Rhyming Word Puzzles
Have some Easter fun with this Easter Egg rhyming word game for early years.
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Remembrance Day Word Search - Upper Years
Build vocabulary skills with this Remembrance Day word search for upper years.
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NAIDOC Week 2022 Crossword Puzzle
A student crossword puzzle based on the information sheet about the NAIDOC 2022 theme: “Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!”
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NAIDOC 2021 – Heal Country! - Crossword Puzzle
A puzzle related to key concepts of the NAIDOC theme.
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Name Match Up Puzzle – Word Document Template
A Word template to make your own match-up puzzles.
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Food-Themed Syllable Puzzle
A fun food-themed phonics activity for lower years that helps to develop syllable recognition.
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Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Maze - 'Zz'
A fun maze to use when learning how to identify uppercase and lowercase letters.