Students work in groups to decide how to divide a rectangular candy bar among four people. The students then compare the various ways that each group solved the problem. Use tessellations to explore properties of geometric shapes and their relationships to the concepts of area and perimeter. Students use Unifix cubes or pattern blocks to create colorful designs. They also discuss why these polygon shapes fit together like a puzzle.
Students use different shapes to make quilt patterns.
During free play time, students use pattern blocks to make different space-filling designs. They record any patterns that they especially like, using templates or drawing around the blocks. Students look at the world around them for examples of changes in position that do not change size or shape. Students look through and discuss the no-text book Changes, Changes by Pat Hutchins. In it, a man and a woman use the same set of building blocks to transform a house into a fire engine, then a boat, a truck, and back to a house.