Monday, July 4, 2022

Crypto-Animals Update


Crypto-Animals has been overhauled! 

1) It has a new format. The math problems now are contained in one big box, along with the associated letter. This allows students room to solve the problems using any method they prefer.

2) The mystery animal now includes clues. Not every student will know every animal in the entire set of Crypto-Animals, so I decided to include clues! Now each letter of the final answer has a blank with an easier math problem underneath it. Students who are still mystified by the clues, can solve these problems, and then decode the answer! This change did require some clue rewrites, and I think this improved the overall quality also.

3) Stickers are now included! I've always wanted to include pictures of the animals on each puzzle page, but that would make things WAY too easy. Now you can reward students who complete their puzzle sheets with a sticker of each animal! I've used fairly realistic clip arts, and each sticker includes a background with the animal's habitat. I think they turned out pretty cool!


If you already own either of the Crypto-Animals sets, you can head over to TpT, click "My Purchases", then scroll down to Crypto-Animals to download the latest version. You can also just go to the product pages to re-download.  Here they are:


Some notes about the stickers . . . I tried very hard to make these work with 2" printable sticker sheets, but had no luck. I can get them to almost fit the templates, but they never quite print correctly. My suggestion is to print on full sheet sticker paper, then punch out with a 2" circle cutter. But an even better idea is to skip the sticker paper all together! This will make things much cheaper anyway. I do love the 2" circle punch for cutting these out, but cutting them into squares with a paper cutter will be an easier way to go also. Students can glue their 'stickers' onto their pages. Another way to cut costs is to print in black and white. You can see my stickers in the picture above, and they still look great that way! (They also look great in color, but my color printer stopped working with Windows 10.) In any case, using the stickers is completely optional. I love them, but they are not necessary!

I hope you all enjoy the updates!

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