Puzzlers - tcall

Puzzlers
Group Size: ___2 or more____
Time: ___Approx. 15 min.__
PURPOSE: This activity can be used as a warm-up for problem-solving and critical
thinking. It engages learners in open communication where everyone can work
together to solve the puzzles.
FOCUS: Critical thinking, problem-solving and working together in a small group.
OBJECTIVE: Learners are to read the puzzle and try to solve it.
Materials Needed:
Copies of puzzles for each group
(The attached puzzles are examples that were taken from several different sources)
Note: For adaptation for multi-level classrooms and to accommodate different
learning styles, we have developed visual pieces for some of the puzzles that can be
moved or manipulated to come to the solution.
Procedures:
1. Divide learners into pairs or groups
2. Give each pair/group a set of puzzles
3. Groups can discuss their solutions when everyone is finished.
ESL Professional Development Center, The University of Texas at San Antonio (1991-2002)
Funded by Texas Education Agency, Division of Adult and Community Education

Kids in a Circle Puzzle
Nine schoolchildren form a circle. To choose a leader they decide to start
from one of them, count up to 5 clockwise, ask the fifth player to leave, and
so on. The last player left in the circle is the leader.
Andrew does the counting. He wants to take advantage of this to become the
leader. Let's call him and his friends by the letters A through I, clockwise.
With which child should he start to count?
Answer: If Andrew starts with A, the leader will be H. to be the
leader himself, he must start two children more clockwise, that is with
C.
Berloquin, P. (1976). 100 numerical games. New York: Barnes and Noble.
Cat’s Dream Puzzle
Puss had taken a catnap. He dreamed that there were five mice sitting in a
circle around him, four gray mice and one white mouse. In his dream Master
says: “Go on, Puss, you can eat them up. But you can only eat each fifth
mouse, going around in a clockwise direction. The last mouse you eat must
be the white mouse.”
Hint: Number the mice in a circle from 1-5. Pretend that Puss starts on the
mouse at position 1. At what number must the white mouse be?
Answer: “Suppose Puss starts at mouse number 1, marked with an X in the
diagram. It will help if you draw one like this. Go around clockwise
through positions 2, 3, 4, 5, which you cross out. Crossing out each
fifth dot goes in this order: 1,2,4,5,3. So the white mouse must be at
position 3, if Puss starts at position 1 and moves clockwise. Or he
could go counter-clockwise from position 1; then the white mouse must be
at position 4.”
.
Holt, M. (1976) 100 Numerical Games. New York: Barnes & Noble.

Cat’s Dream Puzzle - Manipulative pieces. Cut pieces apart
Holt, M. (1976) 100 Numerical Games. New York: Barnes & Noble.

Snail Puzzle
A snail has undertaken to climb a pile of ten bricks. It can climb four bricks in an hour.
But then, since the effort has been extremely tiring, it must sleep an hour, during which it
slips down three bricks.
How long will the snail take to reach the top of the pile?
Answer: 13 hours
“The snail climbs the pile with an average speed of one brick every two hours.
But it does not need twenty hours to climb ten bricks.
At the end of the twelfth hour, the snail wakes up, fresh and rested, at the top of
the sixth brick. Then it can spend the 13 th hour climbing the last four bricks to the
top.”
Ladder Puzzle
Timothy is on a ladder placed against a wall he is painting. He starts
on the middle rung, goes up five rungs, down seven rungs, up four rungs,
and up nine more rungs, to reach the top bar.
How many rungs are there on the latter?
Answer: 23 rungs.. “Say Timothy starts on rung 0. HE goes up to rung 5,
down to rung (-2), up to rung 2 and again up to rung 11. There are 2x11+1=
23 rungs.
Berloquin, P. (1976). 100 Numerical Games. New York: Barnes & Noble.

Who Has it All? Puzzle
In a certain town, of each 100 men 85 are married, 70 have a telephone,
75 own a car, and 80 own their own house.
Always on a base of 100 men, what is the least possible number who are
married, have a telephone, own a car, and own their own house?
Answer: On the base of 100 men:
‣ 15 are not married
‣ 30 do not have a telephone
‣ 25 do not have a car
‣ 20 do not own their own house
It is possible that these 90 men are all different, which would leave only 10 men
with wife, phone, car and house.
Berloquin, P. (1976). 100 numerical games. New York: Barnes and Noble.