Geometry

Who doesn't love shapes?  Geometry is all about shapes and their attributes and properties.  Students who are very visual and have a passion for drawing have a particular interest in geometry.  This is a great unit to get those students who otherwise may be checked out during harder lessons such as fractions or algebra.  This unit can also increase student morale as it is very interactive and engaging for all students- even those who struggle. 

Geometry encompasses much more than just shapes however!  Geometry also helps students to discover patterns, find areas, lengths, angles and volumes.  All the these properties are embedded in our everyday lives, therefore geometry helps us better understand the world around us.  

Though geometry is all about shapes and seems very fun, there is a lot of information to cover in the unit and it can be very easy for teachers to fall into a routine of worksheets.  The issue with this, as we see with any subject, is it can turn a fun unit into a very dull one, very quickly!

To the left is an example of a worksheet that is riddled with equations for students to work through.  Taking a look at this it becomes easily apparent how students may get bored by the middle of the exercise as it is very monotonous.  Put yourself into the position of the student, or reflectively thinking back on your own days as a student and imagine a worksheet such as this one being put in front of you.  Would you be engaged?

Probably not, nor would you retain much of the information.  This is because worksheets such as this do not tap into any of the "big ideas."  Students remain questioning "Why am I learning this?"  or "When will I ever need to know this?"  Hands on activities answer these questions and make the material applicable to students lives!  In the Ontario curriculum this is highlighted and states that it encourages students to become creators of their understanding rather than passive receivers of information.

Geometry has a multitude of avenues for hands on activities.  The following link is a blog of another teacher who has posted various resources for every grade, which can be very helpful in creating activities that hone in on the "big ideas."

http://missgiraffesclass.blogspot.ca/2016/04/composing-shapes-in-1st-grade.html

In our own math class we participated in many geometry activities that I believe any student would love, and even better such activities teach geometric properties and skills without students even realizing it!






This one above I found to be a challenging games for students to complete.  It could be a fun warm up, or cool down exercise, or even given as a bell challenge in the morning to get students in the "minds on" mindset.  Students are required to use the shapes provided to put the image together, which can be much more challenging than it seems!

Another fun activity to do with students, is geometry guess who.  This is a great game for students to practice geometric attributes as they have to ask only yes or no questions in order to figure out their shape.  I noticed it can teach students various concepts in a more interactive way than simply definitions.  Students will begin to ask does the shape have parallel lines, is the shape a rhombus, is the shape a polygon etc.

One of my favorites as a child was always marshmallow geometry.  A partner and I conducted a lesson plan presentation on this activity and I find it to be a very fun and interactive way for students to learn about 3-D shapes!  It teaches students about the different polygons and their characteristics such as edges and vertices and challenges students to think of shapes in creative ways.