Learning

Congratulations to Elias for completing the Victorian High Ability Program for Term 1. Throughout the term, he participated in online classes with students from different school to extend his learning in English.

Read, Count and Explore Lego in Maths

Lego is one of those favourite toys that many people have at home and children love to create and play with. It is becoming a practical tool in Maths to help students explore counting, patterns, fractions and problem solving in a hands-on and engaging way. By building, sorting and experimenting with colourful bricks, children turn abstract ideas into something they can see and touch, making Maths more meaningful and fun.

Here are some suggestions that you can do with your child with Lego

Foundation

Make an interesting pattern from the Lego in any way you like (e.g. colours, shapes, buildings etc). 

Describe your pattern. Continue someone else’s Lego pattern and describe what the pattern was.

Draw your pattern from memory when the Lego has been packed away. What made it easy to draw?

Years 1 & 2

Close your eyes and pick up two Lego bricks. Tell each other how many studs are on each brick then add them together. Write your total.

When you and your child have had a few turns, see if you have made the same total. Was it with the same bricks or different?

What strategies did you and your partner use to add? (doubles, tens facts, counting on etc.)

Years 3 & 4

Start with a 10 x 10 multiplication grid and label both axes from 1 to 10. Each square shows a multiplication fact and together builds a Lego tower using the same number of bricks as the answer. For example: 3 x 4 so 12 bricks for 3 x 4). When you have made all the towers from 1 x 1 to 10 x 10, what do you notice about your ‘city’ of Lego buildings? Are any buildings the same? Why would this be? Are there any buildings that only happen once? Why would that be?

Years 5 & 6

Which flat Lego bricks are squares? Investigate square numbers finding the square bricks like 2 x 2 so 4 is a square number.

Which Lego bricks are cubes? The length, width and height must be the same. If you made these cubes from 1 x 1 x 1 bricks, how many would you need? E.g. a 3 x 3 x 3 cube would need 27 1 x 1 x 1 bricks because 3 x 3 x 3 is 27.