Same or Different? activities are opportunities for our children to focus their thinking on a desired mathematical concept.  These tasks strengthen communication, reasoning and constructing arguments in relation to mathematical ideas.

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Same or Different?

FLOWER POWER

Look at the two pictures. What do you notice?

1.  Talk about how pictures A and B are the same.   How are they different?

– A and B are the same because …

– A and B are different because

Create a new picture of a flower using shapes.

Flower Outline pdf

You can use the outline above to create your design by drawing or using pattern blocks.
Describe your flower.

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Suggestions for guiding a discussion…

• A and B are the same because they’re both pictures of flowers made of shapes. They both have 20 pieces. If you placed one on top of the other, I think they’d match each other. They’re the same size and shape. They’re the same height, too. Both flowers have green stems and a yellow center. They both look like they are made out of the pattern blocks we have at school.

• A and B are different because they use different shapes to make the flower. A doesn’t have any hexagons or rhombuses (diamonds), but B does. The flower petals in A are red trapezoids, but in B they’re orange and they’re different shapes. In A, the middle is 6 triangles, but in B the middle is 1 big hexagon. A uses 12 pieces to make the top of the flower and B uses 13. A uses 8 pieces to make the stem and leaves, and B uses 7. If you wrote that in numbers you have two ways to show 20: 12 + 8 = 20 and 13 + 7 = 20.

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Same or Different?

WOODEN BEADS

Look at the two pictures. What do you notice?