Turn the key in your head
Every keyhole faces the same way and no key does. Matching them means holding a key's shape, turning it round in the mind's eye, and holding it against each lock until one fits.
Look at the steps, then turn the key to match.
A lock and key worksheet generator, printable as a PDF. Numbered padlocks along the top, each with a keyhole cut in the shape of a key's bit, and keys scattered below at every angle. The child finds the lock each key opens and writes that lock's number on the key. Pick 4 locks, 6, or 8 with two spare keys that open nothing, to be crossed out, so the last one cannot be had by elimination. Every two keys differ in at least two steps, and by a real amount — never a key and its near twin — and the keys turn further the harder the level: a little on the easiest, all the way round on the hardest. Keys are turned but never flipped, since a mirror-image key is a different key. Every sheet is new, and the answer key numbers every key.
1 token a sheet, fewer in batches.
US Letter PDF — prints on any home printer.
Pick
A key, and look at the steps on its bit.
Turn
It in your head until the bit points the same way as the keyholes.
Match
Find the keyhole with the same steps, and write its number on the key.
Locks
The keys lie at every angle, so each has to be turned in the head to fit. The keys turn further as the level goes up, and on the hardest two keys open nothing at all.
Your worksheet lands here — download, print, or email it.