Yesterday’s post talked about polyominoes; pentominoes, using 5 squares, are the polyomino that has gotten the most popularity due to their versatility in generating puzzles. Martin Gardner popularized them in 1957 in his math column in Scientific American magazine.
Pentomino puzzle pieces are simple to make; using card stock (or an old manila folder), create pentomino pieces having an edge length of anywhere between 1/2″ to 1″ depending on the ages of the children in your class. Using colored paper lends a nice touch to the pieces.
The Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching contains a very fine collection of pentomino resources and puzzles. The graphic above is from their site. The 10 pages of puzzles on the site are organized into several groups of related puzzles of varying degrees of difficulty.
These puzzles build spatial sense and geometrical visualization and allow students to create conceptual models. Research says that problem solving abilities increase when students gain spatial reasoning skills, and doing so in such a creative way brings joy to the students and the classroom.
Related Post:
Polyominoes: Puzzles, Patterns, Problems, and Packings, by Solomon Golomb
Give Pentomino puzzles a try in your classroom; they’re sure to be a hit with your students!
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