How do I explain sudoku to a child?

Every row, every column and every box must have each picture (or number) once. Find a row with only one gap first: there is only one picture it can be.

Which size should I start with?

Picture sudoku for New Entrants and Year 1, numbers 4×4 next, then 6×6, and 9×9 for confident older children.

Does every puzzle have one answer?

Yes. Each puzzle is checked by a solver as it is made, so there is always exactly one solution and children can reason their way to it.

Are answer keys included?

Yes, at the end of the PDF, with the missing pictures or numbers in red.

Sudoku for Kids: Picture Sudoku and 4×4, 6×6 and 9×9 Puzzles

Logic, not guessing

Sudoku has no arithmetic in it: it is pure reasoning. Children learn to look for the place with the fewest possibilities and to check every row, column and box, which is the same careful thinking good mathematicians use.

Picture sudoku first

Four pictures in a 4×4 grid is a gentle start for children who can’t yet hold numbers in their heads. They can draw the pictures or cut and glue them in.

In NZ classrooms

Te WhārikiThe Mana aotūroa | Exploration strand includes children trying different ways to reason and solve problems.
Phase 1In Years 0–3, algebra asks children to find missing parts and test whether a statement is true, the same checking a sudoku needs.

Sudoku isn’t in the curriculum, and it has no arithmetic in it. What it does practise is careful checking: every picture or number has to be tested against its row, column and box before it goes in.

Picture sudoku works as a quiet task for new entrants, and 6×6 and 9×9 puzzles make good early-finisher work in the senior classes of a primary school. Ask ākonga to explain to a partner why a square can only hold one answer.

Year placements summarised in our own words from the Ministry of Education’s guide to the New Zealand Curriculum, Years 0–8, and Te Whāriki (2017).