Have you tried doing Logic Puzzles with your students? They are fun for kids, but can also serve a very important purpose in building logical thinking and reasoning skills. Here are FIVE reasons I love logic puzzles AND I’ll work through a sample grid puzzle to show how they work!
1. Critical Thinking and Reasoning Skills
Logic Puzzles teach step-by-step thinking while students work toward a solution. Often, correct answers are found by the process of elimination or by working backward. Even these simple grid puzzles encourage students to apply logic and reasoning to find the answers. These critical thinking exercises will help students build a foundation that they will use in the future when analyzing data and information, using facts and evidence to solve problems, drawing reasonable conclusions, and justifying their answers.
2. Fun and Important Brain Exercise
Brain exercises are important to start, even at a young age. Games and puzzles that help kids think outside of the box will benefit them in the long run. Doing mental math and problem solving are important steps in keeping your brain sharp and healthy. And, logic puzzles and games are a FUN way to do these things! I loved logic puzzles as a kid and I love to introduce them to my students.
3. Foundation for Important Math Skills
Successful mathematicians do much more than rote counting and memorizing facts and it’s important that our students can do more than this, too! Students need to have an idea of how to tackle math problems, make sense of clues, figure out a logical order, and find a reasonable and accurate answer that they can explain. Puzzles are an engaging and fun way to introduce these skills at a young age…before they even realize they are building a strong math foundation!
4. Enrichment
These puzzles can be great for early finishers. When they work on logic puzzles, they are still working on important skills rather than just busy work. Logic puzzles can also be an integral part of morning work or other morning routines. I use my seasonal puzzles to connect to the fun of the holidays while working on critical skills. In my first grade classroom, I start out doing these puzzles whole group up on our projector. Later, students work in small groups and, eventually, they can work independently or with a partner.
5. Comprehension
Any math word problem involves some reading comprehension work as well. Understanding words such as “more”, “less”, “combined”, and “not” are key to solving math word problems and logic puzzles. By solving step-by-step puzzles and filling in the grid as they go, students are better able to see how each word and each step is important in finding their “final answer”. A lot of clues in my beginning logic puzzles are non-math related, while still encouraging children to think and understand…clues such as: playing instruments and singing takes place in Music class, July and August are summer months, the caboose goes at the end of the line, and more!
Solving a Sample Puzzle!
The logic puzzles from my current packs are simple, one-to-one answer, grid puzzles, meaning once a solution is found for one subject or variable, it can be eliminated for all other options. They are great starters to introduce logic puzzles, which can expand to giant grids with multiple possibilities for each variable!
Below, I’ll work through a puzzle step-by-step to solve! Enjoy!
I hope this helped you understand logic puzzles a bit more if you haven’t tried them before!
Click HERE to get three FREE puzzles sent to your inbox today!
The sample puzzle that I solved above is from my Logic Puzzles for Primary Students pack. I’ve also added a Logic Puzzle BUNDLE with seasonal and holiday options included.
Enjoy! Happy Teaching! Jennifer 🙂
