Students enjoy working with math tools in our Math Workshops. We explore Connecting Cubes, Geoblocks, Power Polygons, and Pattern Blocks. We discuss what we notice about each math tool and we brainstorm what we can do with each math tool. This deep exploration and conversation sets the stage for more teacher-directed activities which we undertake, such as building staircases of connecting cubes to find all the ways of adding two numbers together to obtain a sum of 10. We also fill in designs with Pattern Blocks, and keep an organized list of how many of each type of block we use, recording the sum of all the blocks. Further discussion as a class will show the many different ways we find to meet these math challenges. It is exciting to learn that there is more than one correct answer.

Research shows that when students work with math objects in their hands, the concepts become more easily learned in children’s brains. For example, it is easy to teach fractions when students have had many opportunities to work with wooden blocks which are designed and precisely cut in shapes which show a half or a fourth or an eighth. Geometry is easier in the upper grades when children have opportunities in the younger grades to hold Pattern Blocks in their hands and find ways to fit them together into interesting shapes and designs. In-depth discussions about our math work helps us learn from each other and helps us learn how to express our ideas to others. This deep conversation about our mathematical thinking is exactly the type of work adult mathematicians do–collaboration is an important skill.