This is an update of a post from 2013, when Didax published my book Working with Pentominoes. You can still buy the book. It is geared to grades 4-8, though I used some of the content in high school.
Pentominoes are a geometric puzzle, a staple of recreational mathematics. This is what they look like:
The book is an update of my out-of-print 1986 book Pentomino Lessons. Many of the lessons are unchanged, but it is keyed to the Common Core State Standards, and it exists in a PDF version, which makes it easy to print, duplicate, or project individual pages.
You can read more about pentominoes in this article: Geometric Puzzles in the Classroom. In fact, I now have a Pentominoes home page on my website, with links to:
- Pentomino puzzle books (free for your non-commercial use)
- Virtual pentominoes (consistently one of the most popular pages on my site)
- A laser cutter file to make your own pentominoes
- And much more!
I am quite pleased with the longevity of my pentomino materials. They provided me with my first opportunity to reach beyond my own classroom and school through workshops for kids and teachers. They have brought recreational mathematics to who knows how many students over more than 40 years, and it’s not over yet!
–Henri
PS: see also my Geometric Puzzles home page.