We were delighted to welcome back The Problem Solving Company for their fun and engaging puzzle workshops. For the first time the whole school were able to experience the delights of collaborative puzzle solving from Pre-Reception to Year 6.
Pre-Reception and Nursery enjoyed working together to solve different puzzles. Their first challenge was to match up different colours in a daisy shape, the next puzzle was to fill a triangle using other shapes and last of all the children were given four T shapes to make a square.
Year 1 worked with wooden shapes such as squares, triangles and parallelograms. Their job was to make the smaller shapes fit into the bigger shape as well as create fun pictures using the same shapes. We had lots of fun using our critical thinking skills to make the shapes fit!
When Year 2 first entered, they were asked a multitude of questions using their knowledge of shapes and number bonds. They were then placed into groups of 3 and got their brains into gear to do some problem solving. One task they had 4 ‘T’ shapes and 2 small squares where they had to place them into a rectangle using all pieces. The children all worked incredibly hard and used their reasoning skills to work out the correct formation of their number bond triangles and even got a challenge of matching the correct colour on the octagon, but the question was, which octagon went in the centre?
Year 3 enjoyed creating a cube with a series of 3D shapes, as well as hexagons and heptagons with a range of triangles.  They particularly liked the challenge of the dominoes, where they had to create a entire circle with the pieces, so they would match and follow the pattern.
Year 4 tested their memory and spatial awareness where they had to recreate a sculpture of Megablocks where only one person could see the sculpture at anyone time and it was hidden 2 metres away from where they worked. They had to use clear descriptions and work collaboratively.
Year 5 tackled the infamous Tower of Hanoi puzzle; a fiendish task asking you to move a stack of blocks from one pole to another, without putting a larger block on a smaller. The children also looked at making the largest area they could with pentominoes, before enjoying their final challenge, making a multi coloured daisy with no two colours touching each other. A superb morning of Maths!
Year 6 were challenged by Tower Numbers, building a 3D cube and overlaying shapes. Great mathematical discussions took place and lots of fun was to be had.
A big thank you to Matteo who ran all the workshops. A very successful day for everyone involved!
