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'Cuisenaire Spirals' printed from http://nrich.maths.org/ Why do
this problem? provides a good environment for discovery and
surprise. There are lots of different ways of exploring the
ideas once the main ideas have been grasped. It can develop into
a visual pattern spotting exercise as well as a numerical
pattern spotting one. If possible it would be good for all the
pupils to see the interactivity and observe closely the gradual
formation of the example shown. The activity can then take
several different routes according to the questions that are
asked. If there is no access for pupils to use or see the
interactivity then using Cuisenaire rods would be best. It would
also be possible to create a set of laminated rods in different
colours by using this sheet .doc .pdf What do you notice? Is
there some reason why that happens? What other groups of rods
could you use? Can you predict the pattern that using different
rods produce? The two shown have a cl