During math this week students had an opportunity to create pictures by using pattern blocks to fill in an outline of an object.  Once they had covered the object with blocks they used pattern block pictures to make a permanent representation.  Lots of rich math is hidden in this super fun and engaging activity.

Filling in the outlines gives practice comparing different shapes and exploring different ways of composing a larger shape using smaller shapes (e.g. a hexagon can be made with two trapezoids or 1 trapezoid and 3 triangles).  It's interesting to compare the different ways children fill in the same outline.

When students were done they completed a simple table, recording how many of each shape they used as well as the total number of shapes. This provides practice classifying objects into categories and recording data.  Depending on how many shapes were used it also gave a great opportunity to count and record larger sets.

During math we have also been working on solving simple story problems on white boards.  After our math stations each day we spend about 10 minutes solving several problems.  This gives children a great opportunity to hear a problem and consider what they need to do to find a solution using simple pictures and numbers.  Once students have an answer they have been practicing using the +, -, and = symbols to represent the problems with equations.