katamino

about the puzzle

Katamino is a fiendishly clever educational shapes puzzle that has over 36,000 combinations - and so is virtually infinite in variety.

Based on the geometry of pentominoes and available in luxury wood and colourful plastic. A brilliant puzzle for children and adults alike.

why is it so good?

The idea is to use the shapes to build longer and longer rectangles, taking one more piece each time. The puzzle starts easy, and then gets harder and harder, so everyone can find a level that challenges them.

There are over 36,000 ways of fitting the shapes into the puzzleboard, and over 450 of the combinations have been included in the box.

The colourful plastic 2D version is a hit with parents and schools, and the natural wood version - Katamino; Luxe - has been a huge hit with serious puzzlers, is a great coffee table piece, and has the added dimension.

There is also a blocking strategy game that can be played with the shapes, using the chess-type board that comes with the game.

pentominoes

The 12 unique shapes that can be made by joining five identical squares [or cubes] edge to edge.

Their potential as a teaching resource at Key Stage Two [KS2] cannot be over-estimated and there are plenty of uses to develop students’ maths concepts and thinking, their spatial awareness and their problem-solving skills. Students of all abilities can use them, and operating at a similar level to more able students may improve a weaker students mathematical confidence.

Pentominoes can be used to develop understanding of area, perimeter, transformational geometry, nets, volume and classification.

Good Toy Awards

The plastic version of the puzzle - Katamino; Basic - won the Silver Award in the 2005 Good Toy Awards.

You can play online at the site provided by Scholastic - the publishers of Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett. This childrens fiction book features pentominoes.