Lesson

•Match the Fair Lands blocks with the illustrations of the blocks on the Fair Lands activity boards.

•Classify the blocks by placing them on the activity boards.

What Is the Objective?

The goal in adding and subtracting in Two Land and Three Land is for elementary school students to learn to make and record fair trades. It is not to acquire expertise in base 2 and base 3 arithmetic, though this may occur. It is to understand base 10 numeration and learn addition and subtraction as ways of thinking rather than rote procedures.

Getting Used to the Fair Lands Blocks

Students need to get past their natural excitement at first handling the blocks.

Materials

Fair Lands blocks (both lands)

Lesson

Let students play and build with the blocks, perhaps for days and even weeks. When they can answer the following questions through their own investigations, they’re ready to work with the blocks.

•Which “land is Two Land? (The red blocks.) Three Land? (The blue blocks.)

•Why are the red blocks called Two Land? (Because two of any block make one of the next bigger block.)

•Why are the blue blocks called Three Land? (Because three of any block make one of the next bigger block.)

•Why isn’t the smallest block red or blue? (It’s the unit or “1 block for both lands, so it had to be another color and the same in both lands.)

Names of the Fair Lands Blocks

Students need to learn the names of the blocks and their placement on the Fair Lands activity boards. Click on the ones pictured on the right for copies you can print.

Materials

•Fair Lands blocks (both lands)

•Fair Lands 4-column activity board and 7-column activity board

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