Monday, October 29, 2018

Free Halloween Crypto-Family Puzzles

The Puzzle Den - Halloween Crypto-Families

Halloween is only 3 days away!  Here is another free puzzle to help you celebrate this spooky holiday!  (Just click on the picture or here to download and click here for solutions.)

Crypto-Families are lists of related words that have been encoded using a simple substitution.   This means that each letter of the alphabet has been replaced with a different letter of the alphabet.  It's your job as solvers to crack the code! 

These puzzles can be difficult to solve.  There are several clues provided for each of the families.  The first clue is the title of the family.  For instance, the first family is called "Candy" and so you should expect each family member to be a type of candy.  The second clue is the picture next to the title.  This is a hint to what the first word is!  (All but the last family have a picture.)  And the last clue is a hint at the bottom of each list giving the answer to one of the letter substitutions.  Try not to use this hint unless you get stuck!

The Puzzle Den - Free Chart for Decoding or Encoding Simple Substitution Ciphers

I also created this chart for decoding crypto-style puzzles.  You can print off and provide them to your students along with the puzzles.  Each chart should be used for one family.  Students can write in their substitutions as they figure them out.  This page could also be used for enciphering your own codes and creating your own crypto puzzles or secret messages!

Since this puzzle best for older solvers, tomorrow I'll post a code style puzzle for the younger lot.

Happy Halloween!

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