BLOCKED TOWERS

Kids can be pretty concrete thinkers so it can be tricky to introduce them to more abstract ideas like the ones that turn up in maths. Activities that incorporate simple visual representations of mathematical concepts are an excellent way to introduce kids to maths. Creating block towers forces the kids to think about addition in reverse because they are starting with the answer.

To make the exercise more flexible and hands on, creating block towers with actual blocks (like LEGO) would be a fun way to expand the exercise and keep kids engaged. Coloured blocks also lend themselves to a variety of fun and creative maths activities. You could provide students with the start of a pattern and get them to continue it. Or get a variety of different sized blocks and get them to write simple equations demonstrating how many smaller blocks would make up bigger blocks.

One fun activity would be to get kids to measure how high they are in blocks. As they measure each other you can get them to record the data in tables and do some basic statistics exercises like: ‘When we arrange the heights in order, who’s in the middle?’ (median) ‘What is the most common height?’ (mode) ‘What is the difference between the tallest and the shortest student?’ (range).

Hopefully with the huge range of fun, relevant, and engaging activities we create, your students will be laughing as they develop their maths abilities in fun and functional ways. Our very popular 10 Quick Questions a Day is fantastic way to provide the daily consolidation of concepts that children need.