Reply To: Lesson 3-4: Discussion Prompt

[Kristie D’Arcangelo]

Although I did eventually come to the realization that it was the number plus 1 squared, minus two, I saw the visual expanding in a way that I think my students would see it. I looked at the first day with the 2 and realized that a “border” if you will, was put along the top and side to “protect” the original two hearts. Then that new shape had the same thing happen to it; essentially the previous shape had a squared corner added to itself with one more in the length/width each time. So the 2 hearts had a 3×3 corner added on with a shared corner heart for the 3s on each side. The 3rd diagram had a 4×4 added on and when I noticed that I also came to the conclusion that it was the square of the length minus 2 and that the length was one more than the number of the day. I am truly looking forward to working on problems like this with my students as it will certainly open their eyes to some of the more advanced math but in a truly concrete visual way. For students who have fine motor struggles, I would probably provide some manipulatives to use rather than drawing so many tiny shapes.