Star Maze
Created for free at puzzleandprint.com
Star mazes
Five points, one route, and the solution on its own page.
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Star Maze, Solution
Created for free at puzzleandprint.com
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Four mazes, each a different size. Every one is a two-page PDF, the maze, then the solution on its own page.
Star maze, large print16 × 16 grid · EasyDownload PDF ↓
Star maze, everyday20 × 20 grid · MediumDownload PDF ↓
Star maze, longer24 × 24 grid · MediumDownload PDF ↓
Star maze, challenge28 × 28 grid · HardDownload PDF ↓Every sheet here is free to print as often as you like. If one saved you time, the tip jar is on Ko-fi.
A star is the tightest of the shapes: it keeps less than a third of the grid it is cut from, between 30 and 32 percent on the four sheets here, and most of what it keeps is in the middle. The five points are narrow enough to be corridors rather than rooms, which gives the puzzle a distinctive rhythm, open in the center, then a committed run out to a tip and back if you guess wrong.
Because so little of the grid survives, these run large. Even the twenty-eight-square sheet is a shorter puzzle than a twenty-square rectangle, so treat the sizes as a guide to how detailed the star looks rather than how hard it is.
The shape does a lot of work for reward charts and certificates. A star that is also a maze is a more interesting thing to hand a child than a star that is only a sticker, and it pairs with the star border if you are building a set.
One way through, no loops, dead ends that genuinely end. Solution on page two.
Which points of a star maze are dead ends
On all four ready-made star sheets the two lower points are dead ends: the route crosses from the tip of the left point to the tip of the right one and never goes down into either of the bottom two. The top point is a side trip as well on three of the sheets. Only on the Longer star does the route climb it, to the second square from its tip; on the others it passes beneath the top point or only grazes its base. So of the five points, two are the way in and the way out, and two or three are pockets to explore and come back from.
That gives a parent a fair hint to offer without giving the route away: a child heading down into either bottom point has gone wrong, on every sheet. On the Large print star the hint saves little, because no wrong turn there runs more than eight squares. On the three bigger sheets it matters more. Each one’s deepest pocket opens on a square right of center and runs all the way down to the tip of a lower point: 26 squares deep on the Everyday, 66 on the Longer and 48 on the Challenge. A child who notices the turn downward early saves the most drawing.
Why the star maze route barely grows as the sheets get bigger
The route across a star maze stays short on every sheet, between 44 and 78 squares, because it only has to cross the middle from one side point to the other. The Large print star's route is 50 squares, the Everyday's 44, the Longer's 50 and the Challenge's 78, while the star itself grows from 82 squares inside the outline to 244. Nearly all of that extra room goes into the points and the lower body, which the route does not need, so it turns into side branches rather than distance. On the Everyday star the route is 44 of the 120 squares inside the outline; on the Challenge it is 78 of 244.
What the bigger sheets add, then, is detail and deeper pockets rather than a longer journey. The squares shrink from about 11 mm on the Large print to 6.5 mm on the Challenge, the outline looks more like a drawn star, and the dead ends multiply, from 13 on the Large print to 32 on the Challenge. For a quick reward at the end of a lesson, the Large print or Everyday star is a short sitting; for a child who wants a harder star, the Challenge adds more decisions, ten forks on its route, rather than more distance to cover.
Common questions
Why is the star sheet so large and still so quick?
The outline throws away more than two thirds of the grid, so the twenty-eight-square Challenge star has only 244 squares inside it, fewer than the 256 of a plain sixteen-square grid. Its route is 78 squares long, shorter than the 87-square route on the fourteen-square Step up sheet on the easy mazes page.
What is this good for besides being a maze?
Reward charts and certificates, where a star that doubles as a puzzle earns its place on the wall. The Large print sheet suits that best, with a 50-square route on squares about 11 mm across. The ready-made sheets print without a frame, but the maker on this page offers five star border designs if you want a matching set.
Why does the star maze start on a side point rather than the top?
Because the way in is always the leftmost square of the outline and the way out the rightmost, and on a star those are the tips of the two side points. Every shape here is entered and left the same way, so the journey always runs from the left of the page to the right.
Want to know when new printables go up?
New printables when they go up, mostly seasonal, a few times a year.