This past week my upper elementary classes started their equations, patterns, and rules units. The units are composed of patterns, special cases, student-created rules, and solving equations. To be honest this is one of my favorite units and involves a good amount of pattern exploration. Through exploration, students construct their own understanding of how mathematical rules can be developed by analyzing patterns. Many of these activities involve manipulatives or visual representations of various patterns. I’m going to highlight three specific activities that seemed to work well this past week.
Analyzing the Perimeter
Students were given a handful of square geometry blocks. They were asked to find the perimeter of one block. This was quick as students just needed to count the sides of the block. Four! Students then put together two blocks and found that the perimeter didn’t double, instead it was six. Students continued the patterns and discussed with their group what the rule could possible be. Some groups used the whiteboards to write possible solutions. Throughout this activity students struggled at first and then came to an understanding that the rule just didn’t include one operation. After the rule was discovered the students found the perimeter of 100, 200, and even 1,000 squares put together in a horizontal row. I believe this activity also helped establish the reason for having mathematical rules.
Rule Tables
Students used four dice, a whiteboard, iPad, and dry erase marker to complete this activity. Two of the dice were operation and they had + and – on the sides. The other two were typical six-sided 1-6 dice. Students rolled all four dice and created a rule. For example, if a student rolled a 6, 2, +, and – then he/she could say the rule is + 6 – 2. Students wrote the rule on top of the whiteboard and used one of the die to roll five numbers that would be included in the in column. Afterwards, students were asked to find the out column using the rule that was created. A few examples are below.
The students then took a picture of their product and sent it to Showbie. Later on that day the class discussed how to combine rules. So instead of + 6 – 1 this rule could be + 5. The students were then combining all of their rules. This activity led to some productive discussions on how to simplify or expand rules.
Visual Patterns
I came across Fawn’s Visualpatterns site a couple years ago. This is a fantastic resource that I introduced this past week. I printed out some of the patterns and placed them in manilla file folders. The picture of that is located near the top of this post. The six folders were placed around the classroom. Student groups visited each folder and determined the rule. While in the group students worked together and filled out the sheet below.
Students took whiteboards and started to build possible rules for the pattern. Once they accomplished this they filled out the table and graphed the relationship. I appreciate that students are asked to graph their findings. This could lead into so many other math topics. Students only rotated through two folder stations so we’ll continue this activity next week. By the way, the students were stoked when I showed them the visual patterns site and not because it has the answers. A few students even said they were going to check out the other patterns on the site. I’m looking forward to utilizing this resource a bit more next week.
How do you introduce patterns, rules, and equations?
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