Area & Art

I saw a picture on pinterest and decided I could do this with the class as an art type activity (which I originally intended for early finishers) but then once I showed it to the class and started talking about how the squares for their creations would need to be accurate (we decided 6cm was a good size) it suddenly became a maths session. Folding the squares into the right shape meant it covered 1/4 of the area, we started with 8 squares by 8 squares, each one 3cm x 3cm covering the black background. I asked the class how big the background needed to be ( I had A4 black paper) so then they had to work out the area their work would cover. I had to get bigger sheets of black paper, and Finn and Sloan decided to go even bigger, making theirs 10 x 10.
Not only did we cover area, but perimeter and some pretty good multiplication strategies as well. 8 x 3cm, then 24 x 24 to get the area. 24 x 24 was interesting, one child suggested 20 x 20 + 4 x 4, so 416. The class were happy with this answer. I questioned them about this, but we run out of time. It wasn't until the following day that someone clicked, and was able to see where it was not right!
The larger sized one on display was easier for them to work out, and lead to discussion about the area of other shapes. Groups used the maths reflection cards at the end of the session to share new learning, think about what they have learnt, and what they would like to know. I collated their answers because they were just a little bit hard to read! Awesome because now we can look at the area of triangles and circles... and I love circles!

                                                                    Reflections