Saturday SAVY, Day 2 – “Spatial Smarts” with Ms. Gruchot (1st/2nd)
Dear SAVY Families,
We had a very exciting second day of Fall SAVY 2025: Spatial Smarts. Your mathematicians continued to impress with their knowledge of math and dedication to their learning.
We started the day by reviewing concepts from week one, but we quickly dove into our new concepts for this week. First, we introduced polygons. The mathematicians were shown three examples of polygons and had to work with their group to come up with their own definition of what a polygon is. Then, students faced a challenge when a new polygon was introduced. The mathematicians were quick to note that this new polygon did not fit their created definition, so their definition had to be edited. It was intriguing to watch the mathematicians work together to ultimately discover that a polygon is a flat, closed shape with at least three straight lines and three angles. For example, a triangle and a square are regular polygons, but a circle and a heart are not polygons.
Our mathematicians used tangrams to create their own irregular polygons. They got to use their creativity and a tangram set to create polygons, draw their polygons, and then hang their new polygons up to show the whole class. We discovered that you could make irregular polygons by putting noncongruent sides of regular polygons together, and we used the tangrams to create different shapes using only the triangles. Our exploration with tangrams was so exciting that many of the mathematicians were disappointed to hear it was already lunchtime!
After lunch, our next lesson was about polyominoes – shapes that are made up using squares. Mathematicians were familiar with dominoes, or shapes that are made up using two squares. However, they had to use a problem-solving process to discover triominoes, shapes made using three squares, and pentominoes, shapes made using five squares. The pentominoes were the most difficult to discover, all twelve of them, but once the mathematicians knew that there were twelve and that all twelve resembled a letter, they had more success in discovery. To end this lesson, our mathematicians were given a pentomino puzzle to solve. The twelve pentominoes can be put together to create a rectangle, but it is very difficult. I was impressed by our mathematicians’ problem-solving skills when trying to figure this out! This puzzle-solving process was the highlight of the day for many of our mathematicians.
Our final lesson of the day was about nets, drawings, and mat plans. Both nets and mat plans are two-dimensional objects that are used to portray three-dimensional objects. We used the example of a photograph, a two-dimensional object that shows something in three dimensions, to start our learning on this concept. Mathematicians first looked at drawings and mat plans to predict how many blocks it would take to make the three-dimensional shape. They then had the opportunity to build the shape using stacking blocks. Finally, our mathematicians looked at nets to predict, when folded, which nets would make a box and which nets would make an open box. The mathematicians then cut and folded their net to test their prediction! Many mathematicians did not finish all their nets, so I know they are looking forward to completing this activity next week.
Questions to ask your mathematician:
- What is a polygon? Can you give me some examples of shapes that are polygons or are not polygons?
- What is a domino? Triomino? Pentomino? Which of these shapes did you find most difficult to discover? What is the problem-solving process that you used to make sure you had all of them?
- What is an example of something two-dimensional that represents something that is three-dimensional?
- How did you develop your spatial smarts today? How did these activities make you more spatially aware?
I hope your mathematicians have a great week at school, and I am looking forward to seeing them next Saturday for our final day of Fall SAVY 2025: Spatial Smarts!
Sincerely,
Ms. Gruchot