Pattern Block Work

I told you earlier that I would let the kids have a period of play with the pattern blocks I bought them. Well, now it’s time to do some work with them!

We have been using a book called Pattern Block Book by Sandra Clarkson, published by Didax. I bought it from Rainbow Resources. I print out copies for each of my four youngest kids. They do the activities, and we explore the properties of the different shapes together.

They have played and made pictures and designs with them so much that the activities have been very easy – even for Abby (4). They are getting some good practice with spatial awareness and even some basic understanding of fractions.

They sometimes have to figure out how to use the same blocks to make a different picture. They moved their blocks to make a chick out of a rooster in one activity! It probably should have gone the other way.

They had to figure out which shape was missing after they used the blocks they were told to use. They had to look at a shape on a page and copy it with blocks. And in another activity they had to turn the paper over and build the shape again without looking at it.

Here Emma is showing that she is not feeling too well. She had a runny nose and sore throat the last couple of days, but she is feeling much better today, Praise the Lord!

Here Abby is showing that she feels fine, although she seemed to be harder hit by whatever virus came through than Emma actually was. Abby is also demonstrating how much she loves cheese balls by the orange powder all around her mouth!