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pentominoes
Posted:
Jul 29, 1997 12:58 PM
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Pentominoes are a great, exciting, rewarding activity to develop spatial
awareness in your children. I have all grade levels (K-6) work with them.
Day 1
I always begin with having the children work in pairs. Each pair of
children is given 5 tiles and is asked to make as many different shapes as
possible-THERE ARE 12 POSSIBLE (edges must match exactly - rotation,
flipping is explained so children can see the shapes that may be the same
but have been flipped or rotated). As a new shape is discovered, it is
traced on graph paper. When all 12 are found by at least one group, have
children share shapes so that each group sees all shapes.
Day 2
Give each pair of children a set of pentominoes. Let them explore for 10
minutes.
Give each pair of students a card with figures to be filled in with
pentominoes. As each shape is filled in by the children, teacher checks
and signs off the card on the recording sheet. Extra cards are in front of
class so children can go up and get the next one.
Recording sheet for pair to be signed off by teacher.
Primary students start off with very easy patterns but quickly progress to
more difficult as their spatial awareness is developed.
This activity can extend all year long. I worked with 5th graders and 88
different patterns. We worked once a month and nobody every got tired or
completely finished. They were excited about the activity everytime.
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