Sudoku Puzzles for Kids

About this resource

Looking for sudoku puzzles your first through fifth graders can really do? This set has 22 sudoku puzzles that step up in four sizes: picture sudoku with four shapes for beginners, 4x4 number sudoku, 6x6 number sudoku with 2 x 3 boxes, and easy 9x9 sudoku. Every puzzle is made so it can be solved by looking, with no guessing, and every puzzle has exactly one answer. Every page has a big "My name" line, one short instruction with a small picture, big squares and room to write. Print and go: students write or draw with a pencil, or type into the boxes on screen.

Everything Inside

• 2 how-to-solve sheets: the one rule, then three ways to find a missing shape or number (look at a row, a column or a box), with a "now you try" on each
• 6 picture sudoku puzzles (a circle, a square, a triangle and a heart), two to a sheet, 3 sheets. Students draw the shape in each empty box
• 4 number sudoku puzzles on 4x4 grids (numbers 1 to 4), two to a sheet, 2 sheets
• 2 cut-and-glue sudoku puzzles, one with shapes and one with numbers: cut out 6 clue pieces and glue them in the 6 empty boxes
• 6 puzzles on 6x6 grids (numbers 1 to 6, boxes 2 down and 3 across), one to a sheet, each with a "how I solved it" space
• 4 easy puzzles on 9x9 grids, one to a sheet
• Every puzzle has a hint ("look at row 3 first") and the puzzles in each size have fewer printed clues as you go
• 1 words sheet: 12 sudoku words and 4 sentence frames to talk and write about the thinking
• 3 answer-key sheets (4x4, 6x6, 9x9), a tracker with a roll-up graph, a filled example (an invented student), a family page with a missing-shape game, a Start Here page and a What's Next page

Three Levels

A small shape in the top corner of 17 student sheets tells you the level: a circle (7 sheets) is starting, the 4x4 sizes; a square (6 sheets) is building, the 6x6 puzzles; a triangle (4 sheets) is ready for more, the 9x9 puzzles. The two how-to-solve sheets and the words sheet carry no level shape.

How It Works

1. Start with how to solve, then pick a size.

2. Print a sheet and hand it over. One short instruction, one job. Students write or draw in the empty squares.

3. Check with the key, write the date and score on the tracker, and color the roll-up column.

Want a puzzle you can use again and again? Slide the printed sheet into a sheet protector and use a dry-erase marker.

Built For The Child Holding The Page

A big "My name" line, big print, squares big enough for small hands, and room to write. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult; the keys, tracker and notes are on separate teacher pages. All the puzzles are made up for this set. Every puzzle is made by code and checked by code: each one is solved by a second program that confirms it has exactly one answer and needs no guessing, each grid is drawn from its own data and read back, and every answer in the key comes from the same data as its puzzle.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

Who This Is For

First through fifth grade teachers, special education teachers, interventionists, early finishers, enrichment and gifted groups, and families who want sudoku puzzles for kids that start with shapes and grow to 9x9.