😉 So with my daughter,if you notice some of the patterns she created, we were able to use a variety of counting and skip counting techniques, as well as some addition strategies to find the total number of each pattern block. Here’s one example of a castle that I thought was pretty impressive, not that I’m biased or anything. I wanted them to be able to try different combinations of shapes and really get creative with their designs (plus I knew my 4 year old who is the most excited about going to Cinderella’s Castle would want to do it too), so laminating allowed us to erase and start again. I laminated the pages for durability and for multiple uses. Once they were finished, we counted or added the total number of each pattern block used to create their castle and recorded it on the bottom of the page. Using any of the pattern blocks, in any way they would like, they were to try and create Cinderella’s Castle on their paper. Then I explained the challenge of the day. For example, they saw that two trapezoids can form a hexagon. Then we were able to talk about how some of the shapes can be used to create the others. They were familiar with all but trapezoid. We took some time before starting just to look at the different shapes and compare them and review the names. We have a really wonderful set of wooden pattern blocks, and my kids love to play and build with them, so they were beyond excited to get them out for math. * Please Note: This post contains affiliate links which help support the work of this site. This week, to build on our triangles lesson from “The Greedy Triangle,” we pulled out the pattern blocks to create and explore more shapes, as well as counting and addition strategies! It was a HUGE hit! 😉 To help use their excitement to learn and explore important math concepts, we’ve been having a “Disney Math” lesson each week! (If you missed last week, check out our math countdown to Disney!). If you haven’t seen on Instagram, my family is counting down the days to our Disney World vacation! This is our first time, and my kids are just a little bit excited.

Block castle