Monster Brick Rally

Objective:
Child will create SOHO Brick monsters of their own design and will compare their features using ratios.

Essential Question:
How might we use mathematics to describe and compare the relationships between different things?

Special Materials:
Pen/pencil and paper, markers or colored pencils

Bricks Required:
All

Project Structure

Engage/Explain:

1. Tell child that today they will be using SOHO bricks to engage in creative play by designing Brick Monsters of their choosing.
2. Ask child to take out a sheet of paper and begin designing what they would like their monster to look like.
   1. Remind them to think about the monster’s features:
      1. How many eyes will it have? Arms, feet, tails, tentacles, claws, etc.
      2. Child can make notes of their features on the side.
   2. Child ought to draw their creation.

Explore:

1. Provide time for child to use SOHO Bricks and to design their monsters.
   1. Set a time limit for your child to build so they stay on task.
   2. Adjust this time as you see fit.
2. Ask child to create a table of features for their SOHO Monsters.
   1. Tabulate features by name and quantity.
3. Consider getting involved by building a SOHO Monster as well.

Explain:

1. Provide child with the definition of a ratio:
   1. A ratio expresses a relationship between two quantities.
2. Ask child to look at your SOHO Monster and write down a ratio of features from your monster.
3. Have child share ratios that they came up with.
   1. This may be a struggle at first as they may not quite know what you are asking them.
   2. Facilitate the feedback they give you to work towards an example of a ratio from your monster.
   3. Once the first one is done, child will be able to generate others more quickly.
   4. Through child-generated examples, help facilitate the use of language and written forms to express ratios.
4. Ask child to look at their monsters and generate and write down as many ratios as they can think of.