Making Blocks to Play Math

I am an affiliate of WoodPeckers Crafts. How did this happen? Early in my blogging days sharing about our homeschool journey, I wrote a post about how I made a 100-chart out of 1-inch wooden blocks: Making a 100-chart for Math. It turned out to be THE most popular post, still to this day, on my blog. I am an affiliate for Amazon, and hmmm, I just wanted all that money to go to a small business with sustainable practices, so I started looking, and WoodPeckers Crafts and I found each other.

In this post you’ll find

Woodpeckers Crafts

They are the best! Not only are they family-owned, small business making products from sustainable sources, but they also are wonderful affiliates. I am in touch will real people who go out of their way for me. Every once in a while, I get a box of goodies to do whatever I like. In addition, because I’m a little different from their other affiliates in that we are Waldorf and Charlotte Mason-inspired homeschoolers, not just crafters, what my box contains is usually hand-picked for me and my audience (YOU) in mind by Renee herself, our affiliate liaison. How personal can you get?!

This box that I received had 122 1-inch blocks, and I knew I wanted to do something different with these blocks than my usual 100-chart or even the multiplication chart. In fact, I had already been dreaming of what I would like to make even before that box, a surprise to me, arrived on my doorstep – Truchet Blocks! Yes, yes, more math.

Truchet Tiles

Truchet tiles are square tiles with two contrasting colors that can be arranged to make different patterns. When I think of them, I usually think of the contrasting colors dissecting the square into two even triangles, but it doesn’t have to be a triangular dissection. Another really interesting possibility is when two opposite corners of a tile have a quarter-circle curve. Here’s a blog post from Neil with some of the more interesting patterns I’ve seen: What are Truchet Tiles?

These tiles can be arranged in different forms to create patterns, some of which can be repeating patterns and can also be scaled patterns. You see the math running through my head here. It takes critical thinking about spatial arrangement and symmetry in creating a pattern. After the pattern is established, you could also think about the fraction or percent of each color. We could talk about ratios and finding the smallest arrangement in a repeating pattern. Okay, I’m getting side-tracked. We can talk about the math of these tiles another day. Today is about making them.

Tips for Painting

These were fairly easy to make, even simpler than the 100 blocks. They did require taping the square with painter’s tape to obtain the triangle edge. Another trick that became apparent was that I accomplished a cleaner edge if I held the block with the triangle point down for the triangle I was painting and did two light coats instead of one heavy coat of watercolor. Otherwise, the paint seeped under the tape leaving me with a less-than-crisp edge than I wanted.

It was also helpful for the triangle to be on the grain side. When you look at the wooden block, four sides run with the grain, and two sides are against the grain. These two sides soak up a lot more of the watercolor paint. With the triangles on two of the grain sides, it was easier to get that crisp edge.

You could easily do these in two contrasting colors – black and white, or red and green, etc. – but you know I needed mine in a rainbow of colors. I chose 10 colors from our Stockmar Waldorf watercolors. You can see more about our watercolors in the blog: A Homeschooler’s Review of the Book Painting and Drawing in Waldorf Schools. I painted 10 of each block, but I highly recommend 12 of each color. Several patterns take roughly 12 blocks of color (using 16 blocks total) that would have been nice to have of all the same hue.

Instructions

Here are the steps for making them.

• Inspect your blocks and lightly sand them. I suggest having at least 160 blocks. This allows a repeating pattern of 4 x 4 block, with 16 blocks of each color. I did 10 colors.

Taping the Blocks

• Tear off a piece of tape roughly 5 inches.
• Holding the tape in the middle, position the tape on one of the sides going with the grain from corner to corner forming the triangle.
• Wrap the tape around one side covering that side completely.
• Continuing around wrapping the next side corner to corner to form the opposite triangle.
• Go back to the other side of the tape wrapping it around the next side to cover the entire side.
• Continue wrapping around the next side going from corner to corner to form the opposite side’s triangle.
• Secure any loose edges

Painting the Blocks

• Dip a paintbrush into the watercolor paint.
• Hold the block so that a triangle piece faces you and paint that face from the bottom to the top with a light coat of paint.
• Turn to paint the other faces, repeating the orientation of the block and the direction of the paint from light to bottom.
• Allow to dry.
• Repeat the painting.
• Allow to dry again.

Finishing the Blocks

• Remove the painter’s tape.
• Leave natural or coat the block with a beeswax-coconut oil mix.
• Play!

Video

Gallery

Just a note: I participate in Affiliates Programs. When you use some of the links above, your cost is the same, but I receive a very small commission from your purchase. For more information on my relationships see my Policies and Disclosures page.