Mazes with no dead ends, where the task is the shortest way
Nowhere on this sheet can a child get stuck — every square has at least two ways out. What it asks instead is which of the many routes to the star is the short one, which is comparing rather than searching.
Getting there is easy. Getting there fastest is not.
A no-dead-ends maze generator, printable as a PDF. Pick a corridor width and generate. Every dead end is opened out again after the maze is carved, so the sheet cannot be failed: reaching the star is a matter of time, and the question is whether the route taken was the good one. Exactly one route is the shortest — the two openings are chosen to guarantee it, so the answer key is never one of two right answers — and the best way across that avoids it costs only about a tenth more, which is close enough that no child can tell by eye. A line under the maze asks for the number of squares, and the answer key prints it.
1 token a sheet, fewer in batches.
US Letter PDF — prints on any home printer.
Start
At the arrow on the left.
Count
Every square has two ways out, so many different routes reach the star.
Write
Finding one is not the task. Count the squares on the shortest.
Path width
How much room the pencil has, and how long the shortest way through comes out — around thirty squares at the widest, sixty-five at the narrowest.
Your worksheet lands here — download, print, or email it.