Activity Mats 50 & 51: My Six Bricks Number Grid 1

This is a double sided A3 Gloss Laminated Mat for mathematics. Each individual rectangle is designed to take a ‘Six Brick’ standing vertically.

Side A: My Six Bricks Hundred Grid (all numbers showing)

Side B: My Six Bricks Random Number Grid (some numbers showing)

The mats are targeting a wealth of number concepts 1 to 100, which follows directly on from ‘My Six Bricks Number Line’ to 10.

Each of the 4 grids has a ‘grid referencing’ system on the periphery allowing every number to be designated a coordinate, which not only adds a layer of complexity but facilitates whole class correction of tasks. A very clever system, first of its kind!

Children work on the mats individually, in pairs or groups, equipped with their sets of 6 bricks.

There are hundreds of skills building activities that you perform with a simple hundred grid, actually the number of activities is probably infinite!

Sample Task 1

We are learning to identify numbers 1 to 100

• Put a green brick on 12
• Put a light blue brick on 36
• Put a yellow brick on 56
• Put an orange brick on 81
• Place a red brick on 90

Correct by calling coordinates and answers e.g. 12, your green brick should be on  (B,Square)

Sample Task 2

We are practising adding 11 to any number

• Put a green brick on 12 + 11
• Put a light blue brick on 36 + 11
• Put a yellow brick on 5 +11
• Put an orange brick on 6 +11
• Place a red brick on 28 + 11

Note 1: Here, the children will also be using their 100 grid knowledge and applying the strategy of when adding 11, drop down a row to add 10, and then +1 more i.e. 12+11 =12+10+1

Note 2: Correct by calling coordinates and answers e.g. 12+11; your green brick should be on  (C,Circle)

The following TEACHER IDEAS are in no particular order and can be differentiated according to the age & stage of your students:

• Put a yellow brick on 79. With red and blue, brick 2 numbers that total 79.
• Find 6 numbers containing a digit 1.
• Brick any number and take away the number above it. What do you notice?
• Yellow brick a number which is greater than 10 and less than 20, double the units digit and add it to your original number, mark the new number with a red brick.
• Mental arithmetic: green brick the total of 23+24? What is the grid reference of your green brick?
• Yellow brick 66 – 34. What is the answer or what is the grid reference of the answer? What strategy did you use?
• If I had 78c and spent 28c, how much would I have left? Yellow brick the number. What is the answer? What is the grid reference of your yellow brick?
• Place bricks on the even numbers between 10 and 20 inclusive and establish a rule for recognising even numbers.
• Place bricks on the multiples of 3 between 30 and 50 inclusive. (Correct by calling grid references)
• Treble numbers i.e. place a red brick on 18. Place a green brick on treble that number. What number is green on? What is the grid reference of green? (answer 54 or D,Star)
• With bricks, mark 3 cubic numbers. Discuss and correct together.
• With bricks, mark numbers where the digits add up to 9. Discuss the findings.
• Can you brick two consecutive numbers which add up to a square number? ( 12 and 13 = 25).
• With your six bricks, mark 6 prime numbers. Correct using grid references.
• Use your bricks to mark all the multiples of 8.
• Find and mark the factors of 36 with bricks. Use double brick colours to link the pairs.
• Stand your six bricks on your 100 grid to make a rectangle. Now add up all the numbers on the outside that touch your rectangle.
• Using similar colour bricks, brick 6 pairs of numbers that add to 100.

My Six Bricks Random Number Grid

On the random grid, all but 6 numbers have been removed. Children must be able to quickly identify a missing number using their 100 grid knowledge or find the missing numbers using the ‘given numbers’ as clues.

Task 1

You can repeat all the activities above for the regular 1 – 100 grid, the challenge is increased by the missing numbers!

Task 2

Ask the students to place bricks in the vertical position as follows:

• Place a Green Brick on 13
• Place a Red Brick on 36
• Place an Orange Brick on 8
• Place a Light Blue Brick on 63
• Place a Dark Blue Brick on 88
• Place a Yellow Brick on 70

Correct using grid references e.g. your Green Brick should be on 13 which is (C, Square) etc.

Task 3

Use your 100 grid number knowledge and addition skills to compute the total values:

• What is the total value of the 6 Green
• What is the total value of the 6 Red
• What is the total value of the 6 Orange
• What is the total value of the 6 Light Blue
• What is the total value of the 6 Yellow
• What is the total value of the 6 Dark Blue

Lots more ideas in the accompanying Teacher Notes.