These puzzles come in four levels.  To make it easier to keep track within a level I photocopy the puzzles (double-sided) on different colours of paper, say puzzle 1 and 2 on blue, 3 and 4 on yellow, etc.

• Level 1 involves only 13 dominoes.  These are very popular with the K-3 crowd. Some children may need a little encouragement to get started:  Which pieces do we know for sure?
• Level 2 involves 18 dominoes, which is more challenging.  People from about grade 4 and up have enjoyed this level.
• Level 3 and Level 4 involve all 28 dominoes.  Serious puzzle fiends of all ages can get some exercise with these!

Here are the templates if you want to make your own dominoes for level 1 and level 2 You could make them from heavy coloured paper, but I prefer plastic foam: it’s inexpensive, long-lasting, and light-weight.  It comes in many different colours, too, so students can keep their pieces separate from those of their neighbours.

Level 3 & 4 puzzles get too large for easy printing of the puzzles with the 1" x 2" pieces, so I’ve made the puzzles of a size to use the sets of small dominoes you can often find in dollar stores. Here is the template in case you want to make a full set though.

Students who have completed all the puzzles from level 1 or 2 might like to make their own puzzles for their classmates.  Here is a grid for them to work with.

Find many more puzzles, from small to very large, at Simon Tatham’s site .

• puzzles