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Simon Gregg @simon-gregg.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Yeah! I think it helped to make a genuine connection between 12 = 3 x 4 and 12 = 6 x 2, seeing it as moving one of those factors of 2 on the right side.

Simon Gregg @simon-gregg.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Making cuboids that would contain a litre

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Simon Gregg @simon-gregg.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Counting round the circle in jumps of seven, then noticing patterns

G4 students design and run their energy transfer experiments

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Yes! A great way to reveal how fascinating all this is. We did it in primary! followinglearning.blogspot.com/search/label... (your link didn't work for me)

I then asked them to use @polypad.bsky.social make a set of rods with an mean average length of 5. Some of the answers:

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mean averages – Polypad – Polypad

Talking about mean averages - I asked my class to consider these four cases (not a WODB this time!) polypad.org/bEhYgCi5UX99Wg

polypad.org

Unleash your creativity with the world’s best virtual manipulatives!

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Reposted by Simon Gregg

The Cuisenaire Company @cuisenaireco.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

It was great to see a shot of our International Set of Cuisenaire rods being used in the BBC Breakfast interview with Cat Eadle from @dyscalculianetwork.bsky.social a few weeks ago. #cuisenairerods are still a favourite manipulative and provide a concrete grounding in mathematical concepts.

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They're also only this year encountering irrational numbers, or decimals that continue so far, so that's an added challenge.

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The model was square and side of square. I think one student was a bit confused, and while the others were beavering away with calculators, I got the cuisenaire rods out and we made squares and talked about what the square root was.

I think this could be quite an easy-to-grasp way of first encountering Pythagoras' Theorem...

Today I told them about Pythagoras' Theorem. They all made a slant square on apps.mathlearningcenter.org/geoboard/, then added a right angle triangle to it, then put squares on the two other sides of the triangle. @mlcmath.bsky.social

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We followed up by playing Square It! @nrichmaths.bsky.social nrich.maths.org/square-it/

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One of my students, M, asked what a square root is. So we gave over the lesson to that.

Simon Gregg @simon-gregg.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

That's timely. We've just been using Polypad for fraction bars today.

$fraction bars with equal fractions$

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Simon Gregg @simon-gregg.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Which one doesn't belong? today with Grade 4. We also talked about the fractions in each square. There was some debate about the yellow part in the bottom left. Some thought it was not ¼, but there was a proof it was.

Four squares divided up differently into parts, with annotations of students' responses to the queston Which one doesn't belong?

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Simon Gregg @simon-gregg.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Today we talked about different representations of the same growing pattern.

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Simon Gregg @simon-gregg.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Here is the fable, simplified for the students. It needed a couple of read-throughs. I asked the students what they thought the moral of the story might be.

A king once ordered that a prisoner be killed.
When the prisoner knew he was about to die, he became very upset. He shouted angry words in his own language, which the king did not understand.
The king asked his helpers,“What is that man saying?”
One kind and wise helper said, “He is saying that good people stay calm and forgive.”
When the king heard this, his anger went away. He chose to forgive the prisoner and let him live.
But another helper said, “That is not true! The prisoner was insulting you and saying bad things.”
The king replied,
“I like the kind lie better than the cruel truth. The lie saved a life, but the truth would have led to a death.”

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Simon Gregg @simon-gregg.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Lots of thoughtful observations

around the image of the story, the students have annotated their thoughts

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Simon Gregg @simon-gregg.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

What do you see? What do you think? What do you wonder? G4 students respond to a 16th century image of a 12th century fable by Sa'di of Shiraz.

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Simon Gregg @simon-gregg.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Yes... of course... 🚲=🐟 I like this graph

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Another pair's pattern involved doubling the previous term in the pattern and adding two. They kept going for ages, and also went back and fixed it when it went wrong.

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These two (and some other pairs) were keen to go way beyond the points represented in the physical pattern

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Entering the numbers in the pattern into a table in @desmos.com graphing

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Simon Gregg @simon-gregg.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Grade 4: Creating a growing pattern with multilink cubes

Over several desks students have created a growing pattern of connecting cubes. On the left the pattern has just one green cube, with each step towards the right, there's one more green cube.

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I think it was something like this one:

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Simon Gregg @simon-gregg.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

Today's Which One Doesn't Belong? with pairs of shapes #wodb

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Reposted by Simon Gregg

Jonathan Hall @studymaths.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Me: Are you sure that staircase is right? 4yo: Yep, I’m making the picture in the book. @simon-gregg.bsky.social

Cuisenaire rods in a staircase formation, missing the brown rod. Alongside a picture in a book with a similar staircase with the same rod missing.

Making progress towards the picture on the book.

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Reposted by Simon Gregg

Paula Beardell Krieg @paulakrieg.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Been teaching a flurry of polyhedron-related classes to artists, revisiting some favorite forms, like chiral boxes with deep diagonal pockets that @simon-gregg.bsky.social pointed me towards years ago, and the Liu Hiu solids via Jen Silverman www.jensilvermath.com/presentation... #mathart #mtobs

Yangma Tetrahedrons and the origami box that seems like its too small to hold them

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At least it was in some students' range of possibilities!

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This was our estimation thing today - how many pebbles? I let everyone feel the pot of pebbles first, as well as seeing the picture. None of us, including me, estimated a big enough number. Lesson - There are more than you think - (?)

A glass pots with a large number of pebbles in it.

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Student: 'We need to check it.'

Some more big factor trees, created in pairs, using a calculator where useful.