Pyramid Puzzlers

Oh my goodness!  4th grade is hooked on pyramid puzzles!  Below, you will see two of our 4th graders who wrote the puzzle on their hands so they could work on it at lunch!  LOVE IT!

The enthusiasm was clearly contagious because, by the end of the week, look at all of the students who had solved the 10-tiered puzzle!

Students are now energetically attacking the 15 pyramid puzzle!  Below you will find both the 10 and 15 pyramid puzzles, (along with an example), for those of you who'd like to try it at home!

Click here to download

For those of you who are ready for the next challenge . . . The activity can be further extended with an exploration into "Triangle Numbers."  I pose the following open-ended questions to my students to encourage further, critical thinking:

• Consider the numbers we used to create the first four pyramid puzzles: 3, 6, 10, and 15.  
• In what way are these numbers alike?
• How would you describe the relationship between these numbers?
• Write a rule to describe the relationship.
• What other numbers could be used to create a pyramid puzzle?  Explain how you know.
• What patterns do you notice about the numbers in this list?