Sum Groups
Use a rectangular grid of numbers with a target sum of your choosing between 5 and 12.
The challenge
Find groups of two or three numbers that add up to the target and share sides. When complete, the entire puzzle will be made up of identified groups. Use tokens, such as different types of food items, to identify each group within the puzzle.
Puzzle creation
Create these puzzles by starting with an empty grid and working your way around the grid using pairs and triples that add up to the target sum. It’s more fun if the puzzle has just one solution, but it’s okay if it doesn’t.
Bonus Material
Introduction
These puzzles use a grid of numbers with a target sum. Find groups of two, three, or four numbers that add up to the target. The members of a group must share sides. Use tokens, such as different types of food items, to identify each group within the puzzle. When complete, the entire puzzle will be made up of identified groups.
These puzzles provide particularly good practice with number bonds. By using tokens instead of a pencil, you can use puzzle sheets over and over.
Create these puzzles by starting with an empty grid and putting in numbers around the grid using pairs and triples that add up to the target sum. It’s more fun if the puzzle has just one solution, but don’t worry about it.
Helping your child
Puzzles are meant to be challenging and to take time, so please don’t ruin the fun by telling your child how to do them. These puzzles are chosen so that you can create them easily and then have fun solving them together.
If your child gets stuck on a puzzle, you have several options. You can, of course, give very small hints, if you can think of things that won’t give away the puzzle. You can suggest looking at smaller or simpler versions of the puzzle. Encourage your child to be bold in their ideas, even if sometimes they lead to dead ends. We all learn a lot from our mistakes and dead ends! Let your child know that it is perfectly okay not to solve a puzzle on the first (or second or third) try, and that useful ideas may occur to them if they leave the puzzle alone for a day or two.
These puzzles are meant to be fun and to teach problem solving. One of the greatest mathematical pleasures is that AHA moment, after many false starts and much wrestling with a problem, when the answer is finally discovered – be sure to let your child experience that feeling of discovery as many times as you can!