KenKen is a surefire winner in the classroom – my students eat them up like candy. During the last two regular weeks before final exams I used the 6×6 KenKen from the New York Times website, Easier and Medium versions, with my students. I can always tell when I’ve got a great lesson plan because all I see is the tops of my students’ heads (since they are so focused on their work). This set of puzzles was no exception to the rule; they were so intent on solving the puzzles that the classroom was quiet, focused, and intense. Several students became so animated that I wanted a video of their facial expressions and body language to show other teachers. It’s hard to imagine the concentration kids have unless you experience it in your classroom. I remembered the old maxim, “If you want kids to pay attention and treat something with importance, you need to make it part of an upcoming test.” So there were two KenKens as part of their final exam. Students could opt to do an Easier one, or they could do a Medium one for more points. Many students worked for quite an extended time on these puzzles, several staying after the final exam session to work longer – they were that committed to getting a solution.
More good news for KenKen lovers: here’s a website that has an online puzzle generator. The generator allows users to create KenKen puzzles of various difficulty levels in both 4×4 and 6×6 formats. You can then play online, print the page, or use a screen capture program to print several puzzles on a page for classroom use. This site is called Web Kendoku. On the site it mentions that KenKen may also be called cancan, square wisdom, and/or latincalc. Currently Web Kendoku generates puzzles of varying difficulties at random, but future plans will allow the user to ask for puzzles of a particular difficulty level.
Related Posts:
KenKen – A New Puzzle for Sudoku and Kakuro Enthusiasts
Digit Puzzles–Using Number Sense Strategies to Foster Algebraic Thinking for All Students
Kakuro: A Puzzle with Number Combinations, Logic, and Challenges for All Abilities and Grades
Pentomino Puzzles; Spatial Sense, Geometrical Visualization, and Reasoning Skills
Polyominoes: Puzzles, Patterns, Problems, and Packings, by Solomon Golomb
To receive all new posts – subscribe via email or RSS Web Feed.
Related posts:


Do you have a conference or staff development activity coming up? Find out why you should
hi there,
you might be interested in another kenken-generator, i recently wrote. at the moment it’s not very colorful and stuff, but it serves its purpose, i hope:
http://linuxdingsda.de/~wintix/kenken
cheers
Hello,
I’m always impressed with people who know the coding needed to produce such things as KenKen. Thanks for your contribution.
- Mr. L