National Puzzle Day is January 29 and is something that educators should definitely celebrate. Why, you ask, with all of the eight trillion things that you have to do each day on your campus and in your classroom, should you take the time for puzzles? Well, the research says it’s worth the investment.
Benefits of Puzzling for Students
Doing puzzles of different types can pay off cognitively for students:
- Enhanced Problem-Solving and Reasoning – Puzzles help develop critical thinking and logical reasoning by requiring learners to form strategies, test hypotheses, and analyze results. A study in Frontiers in Education (2018) found that puzzle-based tasks in classrooms improved students’ abilities to approach multi-step problems with greater confidence.
- Improved Spatial and Visual Skills – Jigsaw puzzles and other visual-spatial challenges (e.g., tangrams) have been linked to better spatial awareness and visual perception. Research in Child Development (2011) indicated that preschool children who frequently worked on jigsaw puzzles demonstrated stronger spatial aptitude in later years.
- Support for Perseverance and Growth Mindset – Puzzles naturally encourage trial-and-error learning, prompting students to persist through challenges. This environment aligns with the concept of growth mindset (Dweck, 2015), promoting resilience and a willingness to tackle difficult tasks.
- Collaboration and Communication Skills – Group puzzle activities (e.g., collaborative problem-solving games) can foster teamwork and communication skills. A 2020 study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology showed that students engaging in group-based puzzle tasks were more adept at sharing ideas and demonstrating positive interdependence.
Puzzles Benefit Adults, Too
Don’t think that solving puzzles is only good for students. It has some very powerful effects on adults as well.
- Reduction of Anxiety and Stress – Focusing on a puzzle can serve as a form of mindfulness, helping to block out external stressors and promote relaxation. A systematic review in Frontiers in Psychology (2019) found that adults who regularly engaged in puzzle-solving reported lower perceived stress levels and a sense of calm after completion.
- Improved Focus and Flow – Puzzles often induce a “flow” state (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990), characterized by deep concentration, task immersion, and enjoyment. Achieving flow can serve as a healthy escape from daily pressures, recharging mental energy and improving overall wellbeing.
- Cognitive Reserve and Brain Function – Engaging in mentally challenging activities, including puzzle-solving, can contribute to building cognitive reserves, the brain’s ability to compensate for age-related changes. A study in the Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry (2018) found that older adults who regularly solved puzzles (crosswords, logic puzzles) showed slowed cognitive decline compared to those who did not.
- Memory and Executive Functions – Regular puzzle-solving has been correlated with improvements in memory, attention, and executive functions such as planning and organization. Research published in Neuropsychology (2011) indicated that participants performing weekly puzzle activities demonstrated better short-term memory retention and improved multi-tasking skills.
- Lifelong Learning Mindset – Incorporating puzzles into daily routines can support a lifelong learning approach, reinforcing the brain’s natural ability to adapt and grow through new challenges. This aligns with broader research on neuroplasticity, suggesting the brain remains malleable when consistently stimulated with novel and varied tasks (Kolb & Gibb, 2011).
Practical Tips for Incorporating Puzzles This National Puzzle Day
- Offer puzzles at different difficulty levels to accommodate diverse learners and keep adults engaged.
- In classrooms, teachers can differentiate puzzles by adjusting complexity or providing optional hints. For administrators, adding a puzzle activity at the beginning of a staff meeting can get the thought processes flowing and enhance team building.
- Embed puzzles into lessons to reinforce subject-specific skills (e.g., math puzzles for arithmetic fluency, word puzzles for vocabulary building).
- Connect puzzle tasks to real-world contexts (e.g., logic puzzles involving current events or practical scenarios).
- Digital puzzle apps can supplement traditional paper-and-pencil puzzles, offering instant feedback and gamified elements.
- Physical puzzles, however, encourage tactile learning and can be more conducive to group collaboration.
Free Puzzle Resources
Here are just a few great online, free puzzle websites that you may not be familiar with. Try one (or more!) out today for National Puzzle Day, and work them into your classroom activities for an added brain boost!
- PuzzleMaker from Discovery Education – Customizable puzzle generators allow teachers to create puzzles based on specific vocabulary or subject matter. Types of puzzles available include word searches, crosswords, cryptograms, math squares, math squares, and more.
- KrazyDad Puzzles – This site features a very large library of free printable puzzle PDFs and interactive online versions suitable for adults and older students who enjoy more traditional pencil-and-paper puzzle formats. Puzzles available include, but are definitely not limited to, Sudoku, mazes, kakuro, logic puzzles, and more.
- Jigsaw Planet – Enjoy online jigsaw puzzles with themes (animals, nature, art, etc.) and adjust the difficulty level by changing the number of puzzle pieces. Register for a free account and you can upload your own images to create personalized jigsaw puzzles.
- Math Playground – This interactive approach to math concepts with immediate feedback and gamified elements will keep students engaged. It’s best for upper elementary and middle school students, though some puzzles can also challenge older learners, and includes math-based logic puzzles, problem-solving games, and brain teasers.
- Braingle – Here you’ll find brain teasers, riddles, logic puzzles, and trivia quizzes, as well as a large community that contributes new puzzles, plus a user forum for discussion and hints. It’s best suited for teens and adults as some puzzles may require higher-level reasoning.
- Puzzle.org – This is a simple site with an ad-supported interface and new puzzles generated daily. It offers sudoku, crossword, codeword, and word search puzzles, and is best for older students and adults, particularly those who enjoy daily puzzle routines.
- The Escape Game Monthly Mystery – Escape rooms are great fun, especially for getting to know other members of your team and developing better collaboration and critical thinking skills. This site provides one free escape activity that is done online each month. It is somewhat difficult, so it works best for teenagers and adults.
- The Hogwarts Digital Escape Room – Developed by a librarian for Harry Potter enthusiasts, this game features riddles and clues tied to the wizarding world. It runs within any web browser (although it’s best on a computer), leveraging Google Forms to track puzzle progress.
While many of the above resources provide excellent puzzle activities, you may also want to try something more than just traditional word or logic games this National Puzzle Day. Here are a few ideas:
- Print and Play Tarsia Puzzles – Tarsia puzzles are triangle-based “jigsaws” where each edge pair must match a corresponding question and answer. A tool called a Tarsia Formulator lets you create and print custom Tarsia puzzles for math, vocabulary, or other subjects. They work well for group stations or individual practice.
- Mission US Historical Adventure Games – Each “mission” puts the player in the shoes of a fictional character living through a critical moment in U.S. history. Students make choices affecting the storyline—furthering understanding of historical events, social dynamics, and cause-and-effect relationships. They are designed for upper elementary through high school.
- NASA’s Climate Kids and More – These are activities that require users to piece together data or make decisions based on real climate or space scenarios (e.g., designing a clean-energy city). They work best for upper elementary and middle school students.
- Wordle and Wordle variants that are linked to current events – While Wordle itself is not current-events-based, variants like Worldle (guessing countries), Globle, or City Guesser can align with geography or recent news stories. Some of the puzzles highlight shifting global situations—for example, new boundaries or location-based hints referencing current events.
Whatever style of puzzle you select, you can count on it providing cognitive benefits that can last for years and help with keeping the brain engaged and ready to learn. So, celebrate National Puzzle Day and get puzzling!