Getting in Shape

Purpose

This is a level 2 number activity from the Figure It Out series. It relates to Stage 5 of the Number Framework.
A PDF of the student activity is included.

Achievement Objectives
NA2-1: Use simple additive strategies with whole numbers and fractions.
Student Activity

Click on the image to enlarge it. Click again to close. Download PDF (265 KB)

Specific Learning Outcomes

find fractions of a region

Required Resource Materials
Pattern blocks

Square Grid

FIO, Level 2-3, Number, Getting in Shape, page 19

Isometric Dot Paper

Activity

You may need to remind students, in various ways, what “three-quarters” means. This might involve creating a poster with representations such as:

representations,
The three-quarter bug problems will each have a number of solutions. Students should be encouraged to find as many answers as possible.
To help them realise why it is called the three-quarter bug, the original shape and what is left behind could be modelled with pattern blocks.

regions,
“How could we write how much of the whole square/triangle the bug ate?”
An interesting connection is that for each quarter shape, the original shape could have been an enlargement of the quarter.

shapes.
Shapes like this are sometimes called reptiles.
Students must justify their solutions. For example:

parallelogram.

Answers to Activity

1. It eats three-quarters of everything.
2. Answers will vary. The shapes could be the same
but three times as big.

Attachments

Printed from https://nzmaths.co.nz/resource/getting-shape-0 at 4:07pm on the 30th April 2024