Squareness- Problem Solving

On Friday we worked with the Year 3 students in Tautoru. We were demonstrating leadership. 

We are learning about the properties of a square and problem solving together. We explored the concept of “squareness.” We know that a square has 4 equal sides and 4 right angles. 

We asked: How many squares can you find that have dots from this array as their corners?

Our brains are growing!

Tessellation Art

This week we have enjoyed exploring concepts of geometry and measurement through meaningful and authentic tasks. We made tessellation art this week. We were inspired by the work of Escher. 

Tessellation is a pattern or shape that fits together perfectly with no overlaps or gaps. 

By Joni

By Octavia 

This artwork was very challenging and we had to use Growth Mindset to persevere. We also had to remain positive.

Pīwakawaka Enlargement

This week we have enjoyed exploring concepts of geometry and measurement through meaningful and authentic tasks.

Enlargement is one of those concepts that seems on its surface to be straightforward. That is, until you actually attempt to enlarge something!

We thought about some real-world examples of enlargement such as growing, baking and manipulating pictures on a computer. We understand that you need to drag the corners on a picture to enlarge it, otherwise you are only changing the width or height. We also noticed that the opposite of enlarging is shrinking, as is the case with a globe!

We were given a small piece of a picture, and the instruction to enlarge it by a factor of 3. The original piece had a grid of 4cmx4cm and the enlarged one, 12cmx12cm.

We had no idea what the complete picture would be and we were encouraged to use a full rainbow of colour.

We worked in pairs to help each other. It was really tricky to get it right, but we used our Growth Mindsets and supported each other to get it done.

It turned out the picture was one of our favourite manu māori (native birds), the pīwakawaka:

Tihei mauri ora!

Together we are stronger!

At Worser Bay School, we creating a "Community of Inquiry". This links with our three underlying principles in our vision; valuing the whole child, knowledge building and inquiry and embracing collaborative learning.

We have been taking on different roles in groups. We know that everyone has strengths and that if we combine these strengths then together we are stronger!

These students are working on a collaborative Maths task. They worked together to problem solve and explore different vocabulary linked with geometry. 

Our whole school focus for this term is "I am Connected!" We are connecting locally, nationally and internationally... 

Sid the Snail: Quick Write

We wrote a story about Sid the Snail as a "Quick Write." The challenge was to include as much shape vocabulary as possible. We had 10 minutes to write...

Sid the snail was in a grumpy mood that day so he didn’t go for his big morning walk around his large pentagon garden. Surprisingly that day his potatoes grew to dodecahedrons instead of circles. His house was a triangular prism. His dog is a rectangle. Sid loves parallel things but his favourite shape was a sphere.
By Hunter T

A snail shaped story  
Once there was a snail called Sid. Although he was slow, he liked to roam around the the square garden and the cube bird bath. He loved to paddle in the small rectangular perimeter of the puddle in the corner of the square area in the garden. Sid wanted more than the square garden and the cube bird bath so he made his way out of the octahedron shaped gate. The world outside of the square garden,  the town, was full of shapes. The church was a pyramid and the town square was as beautiful as the garden the circular fountain reminded him of the cube bird bath.
By Kaia

Snail Shape Story  
Diamond the snail liked to go around the perimeter of the garden and liked to travel in a parallel lines. She went travelled through the area of the house. The house was a square. The table was a rectangle. The bed was a rock the shape of a pentagon. The face of the house was smaller and the bottom of the house was bigger and the roof was large but the backyard was the largest. She loved her ice cream cone. She ate it in her pyramid house and the ice cream scoop was a cube.

By Lily V

There once was a snail called Sid and he lived in a beautiful rectangular garden with a lot of shapes in it. One day Sid the snail went around the perimeter of the garden, he saw a lot of shapes and that this were this story starts.
So slowly walking around the perimeter of the garden he first saw a cube through a triangular window. Next he saw a dodecahedron painting through a square window and when he turned the corner he saw a pyramid. He looked straight up to see some parallel lines then a circular window with 2 lines through it. A sphere was his favourite shape.
By Alex P

There was once a snail called Sid and he was very slow but he still liked shapes and he went as fast as he could round the perimeter of the garden then he went into the area of the garden and helped himself to the circle apple. The square garden was bigger than the park that was rectangular and bigger than the pentagon park. His house was a triangular prism and the top of his house had a triangle face. His favourite toy was a 3D square and he enjoyed eating at a semi circle picnic table.
By Alex G

Build a City: Collaborative Geometry Project

In Maths we are working collaboratively to design and build our own 3D city. We have been learning lots of vocabulary about shape. We are excited about the project.

We have had a big focus on collaboration and have been using a collaboration matrices to know where we are at. Today we set ourselves goals around collaboration.

Our Matrices for Collaboration

We got started on the design today. See the slides below for more information: 

And finally, we are preparing our students for the future and if we would like them to succeed they need to collaborate, problem solve and be creative...

Tessellation Art

We have been learning about patterns in maths. Today we began to investigate shapes that tessellate.

Our definition of tessellation: Shapes that fit together to fill the whole page without any gaps. The shapes that tessellate are the same and are repeated.


Here are some ideas for creating art tessellation: