Flipping around pentominoes

The students will use Unifix cubes to create the twelve different pentominoes. The students will join 5 Unifix cubes to make different shapes that will lie flat on a table or level surface. The students will then test for new shapes by flipping, sliding, or turning to create each different pentomino.

A lesson plan for grades 4 and 8 Mathematics

By Dianne Wingate

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Related topics

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• demonstrate an understanding of and use properties and relationships of geometry.
• explore turns, flips, and slides with figures.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

1 hour

Materials/resources

• Unifix cubes (5 per person)
• Pencil
• large sheet of paper (I use bulletin board paper)
• blank hundreds board paper
• crayons

Pre-activities

• Review vocabulary for flip, slide, and turn.
• Explain meanings of edge and face of unifix cube.
• Demonstrate with examples: a figure with 5 faces that lies flat on a surface and a figure that does not follow the rule.

Activities

1. Divide the class into groups of 3-4 students. Give each group a large sheet of bulletin board paper.
2. Give each student 5 Unifix cubes. Each student joins the cubes together, to get a shape. The shape must have 5 faces that will lie flat on the table.
3. The students compare the figures that they have created. Each different shape is traced onto the bulletin board paper.
4. The students continue to make different shapes that will lie flat on a table surface. Each “new” shape is tested against the figures on the bulletin board paper. Student places a new figure down over the traced figure and slides, flips or turns the piece to test for its uniqueness.
5. If the “new” figure is not already on the paper, it is added to the collection. The activity continues until all 12 pentominoes have been drawn.
6. The teacher monitors the activity while the students are working. If the same figure is drawn more than once, the teacher should have the students retest the figure and tell what they did to check their work. (i.e. flip, slide, or turn)
7. Have students share what they learned about their figures and flips, slides, and turns.

Assessment

Students will use the hundreds board sheet to draw the 12 different pentominoes created by their group.

1. Give out hundreds board sheets.
2. Students are to use one crayon color to color the boxes to represent the pentominoes.
3. All twelve pentominoes should fit on the sheet.
4. If students use more than one crayon, have them outline the shape with a dark crayon.
5. Teacher should check that all 5 faces are in each figure, all faces are touching, and that the 12 pentominoes are represented.

Supplemental information

Comments

Extensions: I use the following extensions to further our study of geometric shapes and properties.

1. Students can take the different pentomino shapes and decide which shapes will fold up into a box shape and which ones will not form a box. They can cut out pentominoes or combine squares to form boxes.
2. Students can then take milk cartons and cut them down from a three-dimensional shape to two-dimensional shapes.
3. Have a bulletin board available to display students’ cuttings.
4. Have groups compete to put up a figure that another group has not been able to cut out.