Trevor and Betsie used their tiles to demonstrate how they first built a straight line of five tiles. When students felt they had all possible arrangements, I asked them to verify this.
As students worked, I circulated, observing their work and asking questions. This activity had two purposes: first, to provide students with experiences visualizing geometric arrangements and, second, to have students figure out when all twelve possible arrangements had been found, which requires logical thinking. I drew on the board two samples- one that was considered acceptable and another that wasn’t. I explained that pentomino pieces were made of five tiles and whenever two sides touched, they had to match exactly. Next, I provided students with 1-inch tiles and 1-inch graph paper so each could make his or her own set of pentominoes. Vanessa carefully examined the bottom illustration on page 5, pointed to the envelope in the woman’s hand, and said, “That L on the envelope could be a pentomino piece.” We quickly checked the introductory pages and verified that the L-shaped figure Vanessa noticed could be the V pentomino piece. After a few moments, Carlos said, “Hey, look, there are two frogs! Maybe that’s the creature.” I had two copies of the book so the students were able to gather round and see more easily. We carefully examined the illustration on page 5, looking for a certain living creature that might help us discover the hidden message described in the introductory pages.
At times the students insisted on sharing their reactions, especially as three letters asking for the receiver’s help were mysteriously delivered to three as yet unknown recipients. When all who wanted to had shared their reactions, I read aloud the novel’s first two chapters. “Pentominoes can make a code! That’s cool,” Greg said. “I bet we’ll find out! Otherwise there wouldn’t be a special page about them,” commented Sara. “It’s mysterious when the author says, ‘Pentominoes, like people, can surprise you.’ I don’t even know what pentominoes are.” “Sounds like a mystery to me,” Traci said.
I began by reading aloud to my class of third and fourth graders the two introductory pages from Chasing Vermeer-“About Pentominoes and About the Story” and “About the Artwork: A Challenge to the Reader”-and then asked students for their reactions. Maryann Wickett uses this book as a springboard for a lesson in which students visualize geometric shapes, create all possible five-piece pentomino arrangements, and then go on to two other activities involving pentominoes. Pentominoes are included in the clues they need to decode. Their friendship grows, however, and they work together to recover a stolen painting-a valuable Vermeer. In Blue Balliett’s novel Chasing Vermeer (Scholastic, 2005), Petra and Calder, the main characters, are in the same class but barely know each other.
0 kommentar(er)
