On Thursday I followed up Wednesday’s work outside by taking it a step further.
My Year 6 pupils were asked to create mini versions of our large circle using wool and paper plates. I had pre-cut the plates to have a range of evenly distributed and more random slots around the edges. Pupils were then asked to secure the string by sliding it into the slot once, looping it at the back, then sliding it down the same slot.
They were invited to invent their own rules to create a pattern (such as missing every other slot, or missing two slots to go down the third). Finally, they were requested to photograph the resulting patterns, a selection of which, representative of all ability groups, are shown below.
As you can see the potential for discussion about shapes is huge. There are a range of polygons, angles, regular and irregular shapes all visible. Also, with ones that haven’t quite worked, we can look at the reasons why. Interestingly, the plates with evenly distributed slots were far easier for them to use then the irregular patterned ones.
Yes, I could have followed the outdoor work up on paper with pre-drawn circles and dots around the edge as suggested, but I thought that this related to what was done outside, was a little more fun and – important in this world of changing curricula – helped to develop hand-eye coordination skills.
Many boxes were ticked here and all sorts of interesting conversations were had with the children about their predictions for the shapes they would produce and about the ones they created.
Next week, I work with Year 3 children along very similar lines. I haven’t worked with Year 3 for about three years now and so I’m not too sure what to expect as the main differences in outcome – language will clearly be different, especially with it being so early in the school year. As for what else will be different, I’m waiting to find out!
