A good introduction to Polynomials is this activity I just created using some of the manipulatives available at my school. In case you don’t have access to these manipulatives, I have included some alternate resources you can make yourself (links at the end).

Prep:

Containers with evenly distributed Pattern Blocks (pictured in the photo). One for each group. Each container contains approximately 250 shapes.

A whiteboard or a large piece of paper where the students can visibly see what other groups are working on.

The Activity:

Separate students into groups. Four students per group is the magic number. I used this grouping randomizer site.

Have students separate the shapes into groups of yellow hexagons, orange squares, and green triangles I didn’t bother with the other shapes because I wanted them to have different numbers of sides



Students count the shapes out and write their results on the board

In their groups, as a race, have students determine the TOTAL number of sides for EACH colour, and the total number of sides overall First group to do this got a prize



The Purpose Behind This:

Allows students to start thinking about grouping “like” items together

Students start to recognize the importance of number-variable substitution

Problem-solving and team-working skills It was really neat to see kids standing at the board, figuring out the numbers and shouting to their team mates.



You’ll notice on the white-board I have a polynomial written “6y+3g+4r“. This is a polynomial that my class constructed during the post-activity discussion. Now, I didn’t say “okay, what’s the polynomial” instead the conversation went more like this:

T – “What did each group have in common?”

S – “The shapes” “The number of sides for each shape”

T – “How did each group figure out the totals?”

S – “We multiplied the number of those shapes, but that number of sides”

T – “And did each group multiply by the same thing”

S – “Each group multiplied by 6 for the hexagon, but they used THEIR number of hexagons, because each group had different amounts.”

T – “Is there a general rule we can use to figure out the total number of sides for each group?”

And thus, the polynomial was born. From this point on, I went on to give the students important vocabulary words that will be used throughout the unit. As well as brief notes on Polynomials themselves.

Overall, this was a very simple task to put together, extremely engaging for my class, and had the students access problem-solving skills necessary for this unit without me having to tell them HOW to do it.

Printable Supplies:

If you don’t have the Pattern Blocks, you can print this template and have the students colour them in and cut them out.

Blocks Printable

I used this word-search with Polynomial vocabulary terms for the students before we did notes.

Polynomials Terms Word Search

I used this note template for the start of the polynomial unit.

Polynomials Notes

If you liked anything from this activity, or end up using it, I would love to hear feedback from you on how it went, and what you did differently.

Thanks,

Lisa