Playful maths puzzles, done together, on paper.

Puzzles that develop curiosity and imagination in kids aged 3-8. Emailed with guidance for the grown-ups.

No screens and no times tables!

Puzzles, not exercises

At school, kids can get the impression that maths is about memorising techniques and applying them, over and over. They (quite rightly) say that this is boring.

An exercise

3 + 4 = 5 + 2 = 6 + 1 = 2 + 5 = 4 + 3 =

A puzzle

“What's the most pieces you can get with three straight slices?”

Here's the secret: real maths is creative. It's about curiosity, imagination, and solving problems for the fun and, yes, beauty of it.

This is why our puzzles are designed to build intuition for shapes, patterns, sequences and much more (ok, numbers too). Each puzzle relates to an established branch of mathematics, though the kids don't need to know that.

The puzzles are for doing with pencil and paper, together. But no need to panic - they all come with guidance and handy tips for the adults!

Read the full article here.

Here's one to try

Shape Sudoku

Say: “Every row (going across) needs to have ALL of the shapes in. AND every column (going down) too.”

Draw: One of the grids below (no need to use colour) - ideally the kids watch you draw it out

Starter

A three by three grid. Top row: square, circle, triangle. Middle row: circle, triangle, square. Bottom row: triangle, square, and one empty cell.

“Which shape is missing?”

Main

A three by three grid. Top row: circle, triangle, empty. Middle row: triangle, square, empty. The bottom row is empty.

“Which shapes are missing?”

Dessert

A three by three grid, empty apart from a triangle in the top left cell.

“Fill in the blank boxes”

Tips for grown-ups

Don't rush to correct mistakes. Ask them to explain their answer - you can say “Ok!” and move on.
Discussing the puzzles is more important than getting the right answer - they will keep thinking about them, and even revise their answer days later!
Dessert has more than one answer (four, in fact). Stretch question: “How many different answers can you find?”

Branch of mathematics

Combinatorics and logic. A grid where every shape appears once in each row and column is called a Latin square. Mathematicians have studied them since the 1700s, and they are the idea behind sudoku.

Guidance for grown-ups

We all have a burning desire to make sure kids get the "right" answer. The hard part is holding back and avoiding squashing the child's curiosity with too strong a hint!

That's why we focus on supporting you to be a good guide. More on this here. In general our principles are:

Questions are more important than answers.
Avoid direct hints, but offer your own guesses.
Celebrate all ideas, not just right answers.
Draw the puzzle out in front of the child.

About Pancake Puzzles

I’m Mark 👋. I have two kids and I’m trying to get them excited about the creative side of maths. The puzzles on this site are ones they’ve enjoyed! Many of them are sourced from public collections and then tailored to the age group. The guidance comes from my experiences at the kitchen table so far. (I’m still very much learning how to be a good guide.)

I’m not a mathematician, though I have done a fair amount of maths - I have a master’s in physics and have tutored maths for several years. Most of the maths I have done has been of the “apply this” sort, rather than creative problem-solving. I want my kids to have a different experience!