by MathPickle | Feb 25, 2026 |
Stirring Paint (MathPickle, 2020) Above is a solution to a stirring paint puzzle. Can you guess the rules? #1 When the puzzle is solved, each colour forms exactly one loop. Example: if you start with the blue in the upper left, you move one space to a blue arrow...
by MathPickle | Jul 30, 2021 |
Rainbow Sudoku (MathPickle 2021 – Inspired by Amar Sodhi) In regular sudoku and pentomino sudoku numbers are given as clues. Each region needs exactly one copy of each number. That’s true whether the regions are 3×3 squares or pentominoes. In Rainbow...
by MathPickle | Jul 28, 2016 |
Armenian rugs cover the floor – sometimes laying atop each other. A whole lot of puzzles arise from trying to find the shape and placement of these rugs. PS. The photo is of the oldest pile rug to be discovered – 2500 years old. It is Armenian, but was...
by MathPickle | Aug 22, 2015 |
Perilous Pipes is an awesome puzzle with a beautiful set of manipulatives. For kindergarten and grade 1 students I show a solution and ask them to recreate it. This is a highly valuable activity akin to following lego instructions to build something, but a little bit...
by MathPickle | Aug 19, 2015 |
In Kindergarten and Grade 1 I use Utopia to get students thinking about patterns. The first pattern I want to emphasize is that exactly one on the four utopian buildings is in each row and column. Some students even in these younger grades are capable of solving the...
