Shape, symmetry and area puzzles

Symmetry, tiling, area, and fitting things together — usually at the same time, because a piece of the right shape still has to leave the rest of the board coverable.

Kajitsu asks for morsels that fold or spin onto themselves on a hexagonal grid, where intuition trained on squares is not much use. Hitome’s Garden and Hitome’s Paddocks both cut a surface into regions by deciding, line by line, which way a wall runs. Mondrian Puzzle tiles a canvas with rectangles no two of which may be the same shape. Fractured Fractions cuts one picture into four with a single point. Galaxea and Zebra are two-player games about shape: where a rectangle may hang, and which stones end up touching.

8 puzzles

• GalaxeaTwo of the three dice are the sides of a rectangle — and the game is which two, and where to hang it. · grades 3–6
• Mondrian PuzzleEvery rectangle painted is a multiplication, and the score is the gap between the biggest one and the smallest. · grades 2–6
• Balanced ZebraBoth colours have to multiply out to the same number, and then to the largest that shape allows. · grades 3–6
• Fractured FractionsOne point cuts the whole picture at once, and every piece has to come out holding the fraction written on it. · grades 3–5
• Hitome's GardenEvery line has just two ways to go, and the walls they make decide which flowers end up sharing a bed. · grades 2–6
• Hitome's PaddocksA sheep is worth the squares in its own field, and the two flocks have to end up worth the same. · grades 2–6
• KajitsuCutting fruit into pieces of a given size and symmetry: every morsel has to fold or spin onto itself. · grades 3–6
• ZebraHerds multiply together, so three threes beat one nine — and a stone left on its own throws itself away. · grades 3–6