Pattern Blocks Widget

Pattern blocks are the shape set from every K–2 classroom: the yellow hexagon, red trapezoid, blue rhombus, green triangle, orange square and tan rhombus. They all share one side length (the trapezoid's long side is two sides), and every corner is a multiple of 30°, which is why they fit together so well. Two green triangles make a blue rhombus; three make a red trapezoid; six make a yellow hexagon.

The widget keeps the real shapes and angles. Learners take blocks from a tray, turn them, and fit them edge to edge. A block let go near another slides so their sides meet exactly, and blocks never overlap.

Select the widget on the canvas and click the floating ⚙ Configure button to set it up. The mode, tray, outlines, card and scoring all live there.

Four modes

• Explore: learners build anything. It isn't graded, but you can see a picture of what each learner built on their attempt page. Good for "notice and wonder" and choice time.
• Puzzle: learners fill the outlines on the board with matching blocks. Graded.
• Get and build: a card shows a numeral and that many pictured blocks. Learners get exactly that many, tap Done, then build anything with them. Graded on Done.
• Show: a finished design learners look at but can't change. Pair it with a number input to ask "How many triangles?".

How learners use it

Everything works by tapping, and dragging is always an alternative.

• Get a block: tap a block in the tray to put one on the board, or drag one out.
• Turn: tap a block to select it, then tap the turn button. Each tap turns it 30°. On a tablet, a two-finger twist works too.
• Remove: drag a block back to the tray, or select it and tap the bin. The × button clears the whole board.
• Hear its name: tapping a selected block says its name.

With a keyboard, Tab reaches the tray, each block and the buttons. Enter on a tray block adds one; on the board, the arrow keys move the selected block, R turns it (Shift+R the other way) and Delete removes it. Screen readers hear every block by name ("green triangle, turned 90°") and every change as it happens.

Make a puzzle

1. Choose Puzzle as the mode.
2. Pick a starter puzzle, or arrange blocks on the working board in the dialog as the finished puzzle should look.
3. Press Make outline. Every block becomes an outline. Blocks that touch along a side become one outline together; blocks kept apart become one outline each.

To fill a puzzle, learners choose an outline and then a block from the tray, or drag a block onto an outline.

• The wrong shape doesn't fit. It slides out beside the outline with a little wiggle. Trial and error is part of the task.
• Turn to fit (on by default) turns the right shape for the learner when it's dropped the wrong way round, so the task is recognizing the shape. Turn it off when turning the block is the point: the block then stays put with a "Turn me to fit!" hint.
• Hide the inner lines (before you press Make outline) draws only the outside line of blocks that touch, and any filling counts. A hexagon outline with no inner lines is right filled by 1 hexagon, 2 trapezoids, 3 blue rhombuses or 6 triangles.
• Outline style: colored outlines let learners match by color; gray outlines make them match by shape alone.

For example, the Flower starter is a hexagon with a triangle off each side, none touching: seven outlines, one block each. That's Center stage 2 in IM Kindergarten.

Make a get-and-build card

Choose Get and build, then set how many of each block the card shows (up to 20 in all).

_Example: set Red trapezoid to 5. The card shows a 5 and five pictured trapezoids. A learner can put a trapezoid on each picture, or count five onto the board, then taps Done._

• 5 blocks, then Done is right. The learner can then build anything with their blocks (or the widget finishes, if you set After a right Done to Finish).
• 6 blocks, then Done shows "Count again" and they try again.

Settings

The blocks always keep their classroom colors, whatever your lesson's theme, because learners and teachers name them by color.

Grading and the attempt page

• Puzzle is right when every outline is filled. Each block dropped on an outline counts as one attempt, fitting or not, so a perfect run on a 7-outline puzzle is 7 attempts and each wrong shape tried adds one.
• Get and build is right when the learner has exactly the card's blocks at Done. Each Done is one attempt; building afterwards isn't graded.
• Explore and Show are never graded and never hold a scene back.

The attempt page sums each one up in plain words, with a small picture of the board: "Puzzle done · 7 blocks · 2 wrong shapes tried", "Got 5 red shapes ✓ · one on each picture", or "Built 12 blocks: 3 yellow shapes, 9 green shapes".

Logic

• On Blocks Change runs whenever a learner adds, moves, turns or removes a block. On Done runs on each Done tap in Get and build.
• Conditions and {{variables}} can read Blocks, a count for each block (Triangles, Hexagons, …), Outlines filled, Done taps, Is correct and Is answered. See Widget State and Actions.
• Solve the puzzle fills every outline, for a "Show me" button. It never counts as the learner's answer.

Related

• Choose the Right Widget
• Ten Frame Widget and Counting Collection Widget, the other K math tools
• Events, Actions, and Conditions