Maths Investigations

We have been looking at Magic Squares this week, including revisiting La Sagrada Familia and Durers Magic Squares.

Casper identifying patterns within La Sagrada's Magic Square...

Ben showed different ways of making 33-the magic number.

Jasper, Rory and Matthew challenging themselves to create a 4X4 magic square of their own.

Using the digits 1to 9 the children had to place the numbers in rows and columns to make a magic square- each row, column and diagonal had to add up to the same number.

This group took 34 minutes and some tips to determine the magic number was 15 and where to place the 9 digits.

They worked well as a group trying out different ideas to find the solution.

This group took just over 4 minutes to solve the problem.

Kayley had a good idea that helped her group solve the problem in 11 minutes.

In class children work individually or in groups on several different magic square challenges-they chose which activity and how to record it.

Elise worked independently

Hannah and Ellen

White boards were useful when trying out different possible solutions.

all children engaged and enjoying their investigations

The group who had seen La Sagrada Familia before worked in collaboration to see how many patterns they could find. The theory was that the magic number was 33 so there were 33 possible patterns.We soon disproved this and came up with some theories of our own.
                                              
The carving of the magic square from La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

The group systematically recording their findings.

Super group work and problem solving.