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For younger learners

  • Early Years Foundation Stage

Lawn Border

Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star
  • Problem
  • Getting Started
  • Student Solutions
  • Teachers' Resources

I was trying to imagine what my lawn would look like with a nice paved border around it. So I used some tiles that were all the same size but different colours, to build a little model. This is how it looked:

1

Make some kind of model or picture of your own that shows the same sizes.

Look at the number of tiles for different parts.

I wondered what my border would be like if I changed some of the tiles. I made it like this:

2

What do you notice has changed?

I decided I'd make some more changes to my model garden. I did this.

3

How does this compare with the last one?

I made one last model with some different tiles. Here it is. I liked this one.

4

Have a good look now at the numbers of the different tiles in different places for each of my models.

If I use $12$ tiles to make a lawn, how many tiles would I need to make a border?

How many differently shaped lawns can you make with $12$ tiles?

Do you need a different number of border tiles to go around each lawn shape?

Can you make models to show what the different gardens would look like?


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The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice.

NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.

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