This activity investigates how you might make squares and pentominoes from Polydron.
Make a cube out of straws and have a go at this practical challenge.
How can you put five cereal packets together to make different shapes if you must put them face-to-face?
Maja (Eastwood Primary School) noticed that:
Maja is right, and because the square gets wider by $1$ unit each time, it also has to get taller by $1$ line so an extra rod is added to the centre each time. Continuing the pattern then, the next square will have $5$ yellow rods in the centre, surrounded by green rods. After that we will need $6$ green rods in the centre, surrounded by black rods. And so on.