Pentominoes are a good math manipulative that students of any age can use with a wide range of application as they increase their understanding of math. Even preschoolers enjoy playing with the brightly colored plastic pieces and seeing different ways they can fit together. One favorite preschool activity is always “making a dance floor” for the dinosaur counters. Our youngest students count to see the 5 squares that make up each piece. We teach all students that the prefix “pent” will mean 5 in many words they will learn.
As kids get older we use the pentominoes to teach perimeter and area and also transformations, or how shapes rotate, slide and flip. We start before even giving them the pentomino pieces by giving them square tiles and having them come up with all 12 ways to arrange 5 squares. They see for themselves that a flipped shape is still the same shape. We see that shapes that have the same area (as these all have an area of 5) can have different perimeters. Students will solve pentomino puzzles and also make their own. They enjoy making pictures with their pieces and then tracing the outline for others to solve. They also enjoy making characters with the pentominoes and giving them names. I have seen them decide to make whole books of pentomino puzzles.
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