Dear Darryl,

Further to our telephone conversation earlier this term please find below my reactions to the Constellations program used by 5 / 6 students this term

Constellations

During this term as a strand of our Maths program my class and I have been utilising the game of Constellations.
To introduce the unit of work we followed suggestions in the kit and provided each student with a set of worksheets and large blowups of constellation patterns with which to decorate their books.
Children discussed the film Stargate and were motivated by introductory activities about magic squares through history and also the story of the visitors from outer space.

Over a period of several weeks the range of games were introduced to children so that they recognised the importance of learning the combinations for the constellations and the strategies for identifying the efficiently using elimination and inclusion. Students had opportunities to work at their own pace through the work sheets as well as play group games.

Their interest and enthusiasm was apparent.
The introduction of the game on computer has resulted in much enthusiasm to use the program on our computer lab of 15 computers.
Children have bee setting up their own parameters for the games depending on their level of ability.
The whole unit is still progressing and student interest is still at a high level.