A little more than a year ago now, Sarah Carter shared a set of Japanese puzzles called Zukei Puzzles (see her original post here or access her puzzles here). After having students try out the original package of 42 puzzles, and being really engaged in conversations about terms, definitions and properties of each of these shapes, I wanted to try to find more. Having students ask, “what’s a trapezoid again?” (moving beyond the understanding of the traditional red pattern block to a more robust understanding of a trapezoid) or debate about whether a rectangle is a parallelogram and whether a parallelogram is a rectangle is a great way to experience Geometry. However, after an exhaustive search on the internet resulting in no new puzzles, I decided to create my own samples.
Take a look at the following 3 links for your own copies of Zukie puzzles:
Copy of Sarah’s translated Zukei puzzles
Extension puzzles #1
Extension puzzles #2
Advanced Zukei Puzzles #3
I’d be happy to create more of these, but first I’d like to know what definitions might need more exploring with your students. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
How to complete a Zukei puzzle:
Each puzzle is made up of several dots. Some of these dots will be used as verticies of the shape named above the puzzle. For example, the image below shows a trapezoid made of 4 of the dots. The remaining dots are inconsequential to the puzzle, essentially they are used as distractors.
If you enjoyed these puzzles, I recommend taking a look at Skyscraper puzzles for you to try as well.
Thinking Mathematically 