My first projects as a curriculum developer came out of my interest in recreational math, especially geometric puzzles. This turned out to have a big impact, directly or indirectly, on almost all my subsequent work. Here are some links.
On this site
Free
- About
- Geometric Puzzles in the Classroom is my main article on this topic.
- Puzzles in Math Education provides a philosophical framework.
- In Geometric Puzzles Unit, I suggest a sensible path through some of the below.
- In Geometric Puzzles for Prospective Math Teachers, I share a subset of that.
- Books (free downloads)
- Tangram Puzzles
- Polyomino Lessons
- Pentomino Books
- Supertangram books
- Geometry Labs is not exactly a puzzle book, but it includes many puzzles.
- Web pages, applets, blog posts, and PDFs
- Supertangrams home page
- Supertangram Labs
- Supertangrams (blog post)
- Using the Geoboard (links to many puzzles)
- Other
- Pythagorean Puzzle
- Rep-tiles
- Map Coloring
- Symmetry Handouts (mirrors, scissors, pentominoes, pattern blocks)
- A puzzle approach to Geometric Construction
- Polyarcs in the Classroom by Meghan Lee
- Cutting Out Hearts, by Katherine Paur | Full lesson plan (on MoMath website)
Not free
Plastic supertangrams (More info.)
Elsewhere
A recording of an online workshop on tangrams and pentominoes.
Pentomino Activities, Lessons and Puzzles a classic from the 1980's, (going out of print, but possibly still available from mheducation.com, item # 0884883744).
Working with Pentominoes (from didax.com). It includes teacher notes and solutions, and is also available as a PDF, which makes it easy to print, duplicate, or project pages for classroom use.
Geometry Labs Drawing Template (from enasco.com) Useful for rep-tile explorations, tiling, and more.
Zome Geometry (from Zometool), which I co-authored with George Hart, is not exactly a puzzle book, but it includes many puzzles.