Lawn Border

This problem presents a good combination of arithmetic, spatial awareness and problem solving for young pupils. At the same time, it is easily extended. It gives learners the chance to choose their own way of representing the lawns and borders, and this means different representations can be compared.

You could set up the challenge by asking the class to compare the first four images, as is suggested. Encourage them to talk in pairs and perhaps then share their ideas with another pair in preparation for feeding back to the whole class. The ensuing discussion may well necessitate clarification of some vocabulary, such as length, width etc and you may find that, as a whole group, the children come to adopt certain words to mean certain things in the context of this problem.

As they move on to the main task of investigating differently shaped lawns which use exactly twelve tiles, it would be good to give pupils the choice as to how they represent the lawns and borders. So have a range of resources available such as squared paper, peg boards, square tiles, interlocking cubes, crayons, etc. for them to select as they see fit. As they make each 'garden plan' encourage learners to explore the following with a partner:

You could collate findings from the whole class on a board or wall so that in the plenary, you can bring the children together to examine the results. With some prompting about how the numbers increase, the children might identify the relationship between the number of tiles needed to make the lawn and the number needed to make the border. Some pupils might be able to explain the relationship in words.

Tell me about why you decided to show the lawn and borders this way.

Tell me about the numbers you've discovered.

Some children may be able to express the relationship in a formula. They could also look at other sizes of lawns, and even isosceles right-angled triangle lawns.

Taking photographs of the children's models will help those who find it difficult to commit drawings to paper.