page_title: Pattern Blocks
section_title: Developments
hierarchical_section_title: Pattern Blocks / Developments
caption_attribution_description: English: The chevron and the double hexagon are one set of fraction pattern blocks that are available.
context_page_description: Pattern Blocks are a set of mathematical manipulatives developed in the 1960s. The six shapes are both a play resource and a tool for learning in mathematics, which serve to develop spatial reasoning skills that are fundamental to the learning of mathematics. Among other things, they allow children to see how shapes can be composed and decomposed into other shapes, and introduce children to ideas of tilings. Pattern blocks sets are multiple copies of just six shapes:
  Equilateral triangle
  60° rhombus that can be matched with two of the green triangles
  30° Narrow rhombus with the same side-length as the green triangle
  Trapezoid that can be matched with three of the green triangles
  Regular Hexagon that can be matched with six of the green triangles
  Square with the same side-length as the green triangle
  All the angles are multiples of 30°: 30°, 60°, 90°, 120°, and 150°.
context_section_description: A number of compatible shapes that extend pattern blocks are commercially available. Two sets of "Fractional Pattern Blocks" exist: both with two blocks. The first has a pink double hexagon and a black chevron equivalent to four triangles. The second has a brown half-trapezoid and a pink half-triangle. Another set, Deci-Blocks, is made up of six shapes, equivalent to four, five, seven, eight, nine and ten triangles respectively.
  Christopher Danielson developed a new set of five blocks, Twenty-First Century Pattern Blocks. The rhombus in this set has the same size as the blue rhombus in the traditional set. The dart and the 30°–60°–90° triangle have the same area, while the kite and the hexagon are twice that area. Like the traditional set, all the angles are multiples of 30°.
caption: The black chevron and pink double hexagon are one set of fraction pattern blocks
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