Mathematical Thinking Banner

TEACHER WORKSHOP ACTIVITY - TRAINS

Getting Started, For Kindy & Year 1

MATERIALS

TRAINS ACTIVITY PART 1:

Kindy students sort Unifix cubes in various ways, focusing on the properties of the objects' similarities and differences. By creating patterns, children develop an early understanding of geometry.

Teachers should view the example teaching video and, optionally related teaching resources.

Invite students to |explore Unifix Cubes and/or other materials:

  1. Kindy investigate Unifix cubes (materials, sorting, patterns and working together)
  2. Build trains using Unifix cubes

TRAINS ACTIVITY PART 2: Teachers should view the exammple teaching video and related teaching resources.

Using Cuisenaire rods, students arrange shorter rods end-to-end to match the length of a given longer rod.


Workshop 5 - Example Classroom Videos

Video 1. TRAINS - Kindy and cubes - The Development of Mathematical Thinking


Video 2. TRAINS - Kindy's First Lesson - Getting Started


Video 3. TRAINS - Year 2's First Lesson - The Development of Mathematical Thinking


TRAINS ACTIVITY (Stage One):

Cuisenaire® Rods are used in the kindergarten and second-grade activities. The traditional set of rods that students use is designed in 1cm increments, starting with white as 1cm. If possible, use rods that are proportionally larger than the traditional set of rods (easier to differentiate relative sizes.

Cuisenaire blocks

The children construct trains to aid them in finding solutions to the given problems.

PROBLEM:

  1. How many different ways can we make dark green? (Kindergarten)
  2. What are all the different ways that we can make a train equal to the length of one magenta rod? (note: Cuisenaire® refers to this rod as 'purple').

An extension problem:

  1. Can you work out how to find the answer to a similar question for a rod of any length?