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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Mini-Mystery – Who Is Lying?
A fun, logic-based activity where students read clues to solve the mystery.
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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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Addition Maze – Bike Ride Worksheet
A worksheet to use to practise finding missing addends.
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Mini-Mystery – Who Scared the Black Cat?
A logic-based Halloween-themed puzzle where students solve a mystery by reading clues.
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Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Maze - 'Dd'
A fun maze to use when learning how to identify uppercase and lowercase letters.
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Celebrations Crossword Puzzle – Worksheet
A crossword puzzle about holidays and celebrations.
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Organic Shape Search Worksheet
A fun art activity to explore organic shape.
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Mini-Mysteries – Interactive PowerPoint
A set of interactive, logic-based activities where students read clues to solve each mystery.
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6 x Dinosaur Mazes
A set of 6 fun mazes with a dinosaur theme.
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Polygon Puzzles - Division
A matching game that helps students to develop their division skills.
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Number Matching Puzzle - Addition
A hands-on game to play when learning about adding numbers.
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Dot-to-Dot Drawing - Numbers by 10 - Horse
Join the dots and numbers to make a picture.
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Polygon Puzzles - Addition
A matching game that helps students to develop their addition skills.
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Snowball Onset and Rime Puzzle
Enhance your phonics lessons with a set of snowball-themed onset and rime puzzles.
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Counting Within 20 Picture Puzzle
Practise counting objects within 20 and matching groups to numbers through this 15-piece winter scene picture puzzle.
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Christmas Maze Printables - Holiday Vocabulary
Boost vocabulary skills and bring some Christmas spirit to your classroom with a pair of printable Christmas vocabulary worksheets!
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Candy Cane Activity - 2 Digit Subtraction Tarsia
Practise two digit subtraction with regrouping with a Tarsia Puzzle candy cane activity.
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Vowel Digraphs Picture Puzzle
Practise decoding words with long vowel team conventions with this 15 piece picture puzzle.
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The Day of the Dead Word Search
Introduce vocabulary surrounding the Mexican holiday known as “The Day of the Dead” with a printable word search.
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Piecing Together Emotions – Puzzle Activity
Guide your students to identify the feelings and emotions of others with this social emotional learning puzzle activity.
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Fire Safety - Printable Word Find Worksheet
Kick off your fire safety study and explore fire-related vocabulary words with an engaging fire safety word search activity.
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Halloween Adjectives Word Search - Upper Years
Bring in the Halloween spirit this year, starting with a printable upper years’ Halloween word search filled with spooky adjectives!
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Dot Day Growth Mindset Word Search
Use this Dot Day word search activity to encourage students to Make Their Mark!
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Halloween Mini-Mystery – Who Scared the Black Cat? – Interactive PowerPoint
Download a Halloween brain game for kids with interactive elements that challenge your students to use logic to solve a spooky mystery!
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Counting by 1s Picture Puzzles
Use this fun sorting activity for your students to practice ordering numbers in sequential order, and improve their skip counting skills!
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Prefix Puzzles - Literacy Centre
Grow your students’ vocabularies with prefix puzzles in your literacy centres.
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Maps and Globes Vocabulary Puzzles
Make your geography lessons more fun with a set of map and globe picture puzzles.
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Antonyms Puzzle Activity
Print a set of 18 antonym puzzles to practise using opposite words.
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Antonyms Picture Puzzle - Opposite Words
Practise identifying and using antonyms with this 15-piece under-the-sea picture antonyms puzzle.
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Sloth Crossword Puzzle
Stretch your students’ vocabularies and reading skills with a sloth-themed crossward puzzle.
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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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Animal Word Search - Sloths
Introduce your students to the world of Sloths with this word search resource.