Patterns, Puzzles and Poirot
Patterns, Puzzles and Poirot Teaching basic operations in Math for the 5 th graders Pascal’s Triangle Eye rolls, disappointment, frustration and just plain anger greeted me from the bunch of cute 10 year olds when I announced that I was planning to revise the basic operations in Math before jumping on to the “new” stuff! Indubitably, it was followed by choice words to suggest that academics in Middle School needed a makeover, intense discussions on how life in Middle School would be boring if they had to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication and Division, yet again, for crying out loud! Nervously, without facing the frustrated faces- some of which were buried deep into their palms, I start out writing the first six lines of the Pascal’s Triangle on the board, thinking of the ways I could explain to help them crack the pattern by which it was created. “Use your little gray cells, mon ami!” Poirot intonates from somewhere within. I just stare back at their hushed faces af...
