Maths - Finding Patterns and Working Together

Mums, Dads, Grandparents and other Rua whanau, if you'd like to know more about our maths programme please join us on Wednesday and/or Friday mornings 9am to 10ish. We'd love some helpers - no expertise needed.

Last term the teachers did some intensive Professional Development in maths. This reinforced my thinking in some areas and challenged it in others. I then trialled these ideas in a mini unit on patterns. My aim was to help students find different patterns and to encourage them to share ideas and learn from each other. WOW! I was amazed by the abilities of our mini mathematicians. I am sure you will be too.

The patterns in a 100's board teach us a lot about adding and subtracting. Here Nina has filled in the gaps for chunks of a 100's board. Important Learning: Patterns can help move student thinking. If a student knows the numbers under 12 are 22 and 32, he/she can learn 12+10=22 and 12+20=32.

Students filled in small sections of the 100's board. For each pentamino (shape with five squares) there were three blank spaces and two number clues.

It took lots of brainpower, to figure the missing numbers but having a buddy helped. Important Learning: There are many different ways to solve a problem. Discussing our ideas helps us identify what works best for us.

Ryan and Gus put this section of the 100's board together. When they were finished, they noticed a problem with the pattern. They had made a mistake when they filled in some numbers (see 78, 79) so they fixed it. Great job boys! Important Learning: Good mathematicians double check their results.

There are many patterns that can be discovered on a hundreds board. Griffyn found the numbers on the right to left diagonal starting at 19, all add to 10. Wow, I didn't know that! Trilby also found the secret to the pattern on the left to right diagonal that starts at 11.

Are you as smart as a 6 or 7 year old? What is the pattern for the numbers on the left to right diagonal starting at 1 and ending at 100?  

There are patterns everywhere. William found lots of triangles within this large triangle. He also added the numbers in each horizontal row and discovered the secret pattern. Can you find it too?

Here is a larger version of the problem. The whole class worked together to find as many patterns as possible. We wrote everything down. Each answer added another piece to the puzzle. Finally Luciana and Benji put our ideas together and we added an extra row. Important Learning: By sharing our ideas, we can find out more than we would working on our own.