Pattern Shapes

We all have containers of pattern shapes stashed somewhere in our rooms. I have one and I teach high school.  It was actually there when I arrived 9 years ago.  Over the years, pieces have gone missing so I think I have about half the number I started with.  The other day, I cam across an app called Pattern Shapes by the Math Learning Center.  They also have a website students can access. 

The app provides a workspace that is either blank  or has a square or triangular grid to work on.  Notice it has green triangles, orange squares, blue parallelograms,  red trapezoids, white rhombus or a yellow hexagon. This app allows you to change the orientation of the shape easily

I doodled something but the page in the itunes store shows more ways of using the shapes. In addition you can change the size of the shapes, write, add numbers, duplicate and you can even find predetermined shapes so students can use the shapes to fill them in.

Although this app is geared for elementary school,  I can see using it either middle school or high school for students who are behind and need additional scaffolding. 

The best thing about the Math Learning Center is that they offer free materials for grades 1 to 5 to support teaching math.  I looked at the grade 5 materials and there were 22 downloads available for free.  I think I"ll down load those materials and see which I can scale up for older students and report back on those.