A paper is folded and a hole is punched. Which paper do you get when you open it? Five levels from one fold to two folds and two holes, a daily set of five, and printable worksheets.
Fold and Punch trains mental folding, which is a form of spatial reasoning: picturing what happens to a shape without touching it. A square paper is shown, then each fold with a dashed line and an arrow, then the folded paper with holes punched through it. The child taps which of four opened papers matches. To answer, they must see that a hole punched through layers makes one hole in every layer, and that each fold line works like a mirror. This idea, symmetry, is behind many shape problems in children's maths contests and in ability tests used for gifted programmes. It also helps later with reading maps, geometry and building from diagrams. The game needs no reading beyond one short sentence that the speaker button reads aloud, so a 6 year old can play alone.
Level 1, One fold, uses a 4 by 4 paper folded once, left over right, right over left, top down or bottom up, with one hole. The answer has 2 holes, a hole and its mirror image. Level 2, Two holes, folds once and punches two holes, so the opened paper has 4 holes. Level 3, Two folds, folds the paper twice with one hole, which gives 4 holes. On a 4 by 4 paper the two folds can go the same way or one after the other in two directions, and on a 6 by 6 paper they go one across and one down. Level 4, Corner fold, folds along a diagonal into a triangle with one hole punched through, giving 2 holes. Level 5, Fold twice, punch twice, uses two folds and two holes, either straight folds or two diagonal folds one after the other, and the opened paper has 8 holes. At levels 4 and 5 one wrong answer is always only one hole away from the right one, so a quick glance is not enough.
The paper is a grid of squares, 4 by 4 or 6 by 6, and each fold is a mirror line. A fold moves every square on one side of the line onto its mirror square on the other side. After all the folds, the game finds every square of the original paper that now sits on the punched square, and those are the holes of the opened paper. For example, fold a 4 by 4 paper with the left half over the right, then punch a hole in the third column of the second row. When it is opened there are holes in columns 2 and 3 of that row. The wrong answers are the mistakes a child really makes: forgetting the last fold, mirroring only one hole, moving a hole one square, or flipping the whole paper the wrong way. Each wrong answer must differ from the right one and from the other wrong answers, or it is thrown away. Holes are never punched on a diagonal fold line, where the picture would be unclear.
The game moves up a level after 3 correct puzzles in a row and down after 2 wrong in a row, and you or your child can pick a level by hand. Today's 5 is five puzzles made from the date on your device. Print a worksheet lets you pick the level, 4, 6 or 8 puzzles, and Letter or A4 paper, and each sheet has new puzzles with the folds drawn step by step, the punched paper and four papers to circle. The last page is an answer key. The best use of the sheet is to take a real square of paper, fold it along the lines, punch or draw the hole, open it and see. Checking with paper is the quickest way for a child to learn why the answer is what it is. Your level and recent results are saved in this browser only, and nothing is uploaded.
This game does not teach origami, and the folds are always at the middle of the paper as it stands, so there are no thirds or odd folds. It does not use rotation or cutting shapes out, only punched holes. It has no timer and no ranking. A mistake gets a gentle try-again, and the explanation after each puzzle says how many holes the opened paper has and why. The pictures are drawn on a grid so they stay clear on a small phone screen and in black and white print.
They are written for ages 6 to 8. Level 1 has one fold and one hole on a 4 by 4 paper. Level 5 has two folds and two holes and gives 8 holes when opened, which many adults need to think about.
The paper is a 4 by 4 or 6 by 6 grid, each fold is a mirror line, and the game finds every square of the original paper that lands on the punched square. Those squares are the holes. The tests also check each puzzle against a second, separate model of stacked paper layers.
No. The wrong papers are rejected unless they differ from the right one and from each other. The tests check 500 puzzles at every level, and that exactly one paper matches.
A diagonal fold turns the square into a triangle at level 4 and moves a hole to the other side of a slanted line. It is harder to see than a straight fold, so it is its own level before the two-fold puzzles that mix diagonals.
Yes. Choose the level, 4, 6 or 8 puzzles, and Letter or A4. The folds are drawn on the sheet, the last page is an answer key, and a note suggests folding real paper to check.
It saves the level and the results of Today's 5 in this browser only. Nothing is sent anywhere and there is no account. The page counts visits with Google Analytics, never your child's answers.