Y4 children have been investigating the perimeter of different patio designs made with 10 square patio slabs. In each design, the slabs had to be placed edge to edge and ‘holes’ in the patio weren’t allowed.
Using tiles to represent the patio slabs, they made models of their designs and then drew them. They made predictions about what they thought the shortest and the longest perimeter would be.
Connor: “I notice that all the perimeters are even numbers. We can’t find one with a perimeter that’s odd. I’m not sure why yet.”
Seth: “We’ve found four different designs that give the longest perimeter. We think there are even more.”
Ask your child to tell you about the shortest and longest perimeters they were able to make and what types of designs generated these.
Lots of children were keen to continue the investigation at home. You could work together to find different ways to make the longest perimeter.