Lego and Math
So I built a Lego wall to teach math today! Initially I was going to glue the lego base-plates to a wall and wallpaper it from top to bottom - but I realized that the true learning potential came from being able to work on the base plates, and then to post them to share progress.
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Lego Baseplate with velcro on the
back to mount to the shelf. |
After discussing a few options, we settled on velcro tape. We fastened it to the back and mounted the other side on the edge of a bookshelf. This way it could get that “wallpaper” effect that I wanted, while at the same time have the portability and individual work space of a single plate. Although I’ve just done the first “wall” I’m going to go in early tomorrow to make the other 3 (on the ends of the book shelves sticking out of our walls).
Part of our work this year is going to be around experimenting and finding ways to use lego for math. Considering that it is a grid, we’ll be able to work on having students model patterning, multiplication (through arrays and groups), addition, subtraction, area, perimeter, rotations and an endless number of other tasks. Actually, it could be fun to set it up as a cartesian plane and play some battleship... Or to create different graphs to show collected data.
I’m excited to move on this... Luckily we have an amazing teacher who wants to spear-head this with me, so we’ll be throwing some stuff up on this blog in no time, I’m sure!
Some days I just love my job.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteThis is looking great! I can't wait to see what happens. Funnily enough, we started using Lego this week too. At this point we're using it for building things in Grade 1 science. The students I worked with in the last couple of days were so engaged with just experimenting with lego. It was amazing to see. I'll be posting on this very soon too.
Way to go brother!
I love the idea of using base plates to "document" student work. Making a wall is an ingenious idea! Definitely would need a lot of plates.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Molly! I know the students at Keeler love the Lego and being able to stick it on a wall. We are hoping to get some lego in our space and have enough baseplates for a class to build on one plate each. Unfortunately, the baseplates are the most expensive part. We may have to buy them in small amounts and work up to a class set.
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