Lesson Plan 2: Cuisenaire Rods

I took my lesson from the cd; it its called: Cover the Giraffe

Materials:
Cuisenaire Rods; 1 rod of each color per child
Cover the Giraffe worksheet; several pages per child
Crayons
Overhead/Elmo Cuisenaire Rods and/or Cover the Giraffe transparency

Objective:
Children will cover the outline of a giraffe using a specified set of Cuisenaire Rods. They compare their work and try to identify as many different solutions as possible.

In this lesson children will develope spatial reasoning

• visualize a region as the sum of component parts


• find multiple solutions

Procedure

• Outline the shape shown on 1 centimeter grid paper. Then copy and distribute it.


• Challenge children to cover the outline using only 1 white rod, 2 red rods, and 1 light green rod.


• Establish that several different ways of covering the shape are possible.

ON THEIR OWN
Work with a partner. Each of you make your own cuisenaire rod staircase.
Now use the rods from your staircase to completely cover a giraffe that looks like this (model)
Compare your work
Record both solutions if they are different; Record just 1 of them if they are the same.
On other worksheets, find more ways to cover the giraffe. Record each way.
When done we will discuss and share as a group.