Jump Puzzles: Follow the Arrows

A key across the top of this 2nd grade page fixes the four moves: an up arrow is −10, down is +10, left is −1, right is +1. Below it are eight numbered cards, and each is a chain — a shaded start number, three arrow tiles in a row, a pointer, and a dashed box at the end. Start at 30, go left, down, left, and write where you land; start at 98, go up, right, right. The start numbers on the sheet run from 2 to 98, so some chains cross a ten and some sit right at the edge of the chart in the child's head. No chart is printed; the child holds it in mind.

Three moves in a row is what separates this from a single 10-more-or-10-less question. The child has to keep a running position — 30, then 29, then 39, then 38 — and the arrows never double back on themselves, so no move undoes the one before and the answer is always a different square from the start. The moves mix ones and tens in one chain, which is exactly the 2nd grade mental arithmetic of adding and subtracting 10 and 1: 44 up, up, right is 44 − 10 − 10 + 1 without ever writing the sum.

One sheet, eight answers, no working space needed beyond the box. This page is the chain-of-moves face of the hundreds-chart-puzzles family; the mystery-number page uses the same arrow key but points two arrows at one square, and the how-far-apart page asks the child to count the jumps between two numbers instead of following them. A wall chart lets a struggling child trace each chain with a finger.