At first glance, Strimko appears to be similar to other number puzzles like Sudoku. As you fill in the missing numbers, you must not repeat numbers in any row or column. While Sudoku then has 3x3 grids where numbers cannot repeat, Strimko has streams. Numbers connected by lines to form a stream cannot repeat within the stream. For a 4x4 Strimko puzzle, you use the numbers 1-4. For a 5x5 puzzles, you use the numbers 1-5, etc. The simplicity of this puzzle made it quite easy for me to explain to my students. Let me repeat that. This puzzle's rules are simple enough to explain just once to my students! That means the challenge was really in solving the puzzle, not in understanding the rules of how to solve the puzzle.
Since receiving the book two months ago, I have used these puzzles several times with my students as a warm-up or time-filler for students who finish classwork early. Here are some of the most common comments from my students:
"I like these better than our regular Do Now's."
"I finished the whole page. Do you have more?"
"Can you check this? Oh, wait. It's wrong."
"I like these better than our regular Do Now's."
It's halfway through the year and I still find myself reminding students to get started on the warm-up when they come into class. Not with Strimko! Students were much more likely to actually work on the warm-up when I gave them these puzzles to solve instead of the regular Do Now (I blogged about the format I usually use here).
"I finished the whole page. Do you have more?"
When used as the warm-up, I gave my students a week's worth of puzzles copied onto one page. I told my students we would be solving two each day in the first 5-10 minutes of class. Some students really struggled to finish two puzzles, while other students would work ahead and finish the entire page. Then instead of just sitting and waiting or talking to their neighbor, they would ask for more puzzles! And these weren't only the typical overachieving students. Students who were typically less engaged were finding success with these puzzles and were asking for more!
"Can you check this? Oh, wait. It's wrong."
This was probably my most favorite comment to hear. As a teacher, I get asked so many times if an answer is correct, and I usually respond with, "How could you check your answer?" or "That seems reasonable, what did you do to get that answer?" or "You're right, that seems off. Tell me how you got that answer." It was a welcome change to see students checking their own work (or a classmate's) without prompting. Again, I think the simplicity of the Strimko rules led to this kind of independence.
One day instead of solving the puzzles, I asked my students to write about the rules and strategies for solving Strimko puzzles. Here are some of the things they said:
Overall, these puzzles were definitely a win in my classroom! And not just my classroom. I have to stop myself from writing in the book at home before I've made a copy of the page to use with my students! I am very grateful to the Grabarchuk family for the free copy of this puzzle book. Definitely recommended!
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