The issue of early algebraic thinking is of great importance for the school life of young students. In this paper, the Father Woodland, a puzzle-like environment, is presented aiming to facilitate the use of algebraic thinking in early schooling. Seventy grade 3 students participated and their work was examined within Radford's (2011, 2014) framework for algebraic thinking. The findings show that the students were able to refer to the unknowns of the problems, to use a broad range of (not necessarily alphanumeric) symbolization and act upon the indeterminate quantities as if they were known numbers.