Geometry and Spatial Sense

          This week's sessions focused on exploring problems dealing with geometry. Throughout my math classes over the years, geometry was a unit I was on the fence about. I would retain some concepts of the unit and struggle with others. But as the years progressed, I was able to gain a grasp of the geometric concepts. 

          Initially, a couple of the teacher candidates gave a demonstration on a activity a teacher could do in constructing geometric figures with a Grade 5 classroom. This activity was called "Marshmallow Geometry." Firstly, a review was done of different shapes; focusing on the number of faces, edges and vertices each shape has. After this quick recap, each table was given toothpicks and small marshmallows. Each person at your table had to chose a shape and make a 3-D representation of the shape; whether it be a prism or pyramid. I thought this activity would be very interactive for students. Allowing the students to be able to make the shapes themselves will help students to visualize the shapes when it comes time to drawing them on paper. Although the marshmallows may pose an issue, depending on the maturity of the class, a teacher could easily change the marshmallows to a non-edible item. Overall, this is an engaging activity that I could see using in my future classroom. Here are some pictures displaying this fun activity. 

Pagliaro, T. © 2016.

          Once this demonstration was complete, we continued to explore various other activities that could be done in the classroom in regards to geometry. Each candidate was given a sheet of paper divided into boxes. Each box contained a number of shapes with a total number of sides. Students would then have to fill in each box of the different shapes that would satisfy the two requirements. For example: 2 shapes, 8 edges -> possible answers could be 2 squares or 2 rectangles.This activity could also be done in collaborative setting, in pairs or the class as a whole. The teacher could use paper bags labelled with the number of shapes and total edges. The class could then guess as to what shapes are in the bag to satisfy the two requirements. In short, this activity would be an engaging way to help students develop their confidence in recognizing the different shapes, how many vertices and how many edges each one has. Here is an image of the practice worksheet. 

Pagliaro, T. © 2016.

          Another fun demonstration was playing "Guess Who: Geometry" as an activity. Instead of using people, and asking yes or no questions about the characteristics of a person, the students use geometric shapes to play. Students play in pairs and ask each other questions about various characteristics of geometric shapes in order to figure out each other's shape. 

Pagliaro, T. © 2016.

          The final demonstration focused on the Spatial Sense portion of the unit. Our instructor used the game Battleship to get students engaged about using a cartesian plane. This game allows students to practice plotting points on a white board cartesian plane. This is a great activity to use with students in order to help them develop their skills on plotting points. Here are some images of the fun activity. 

dPagliaro, T. © 2016.

          In short, we explored many innovative activities to make learning geometry and spatial sense fun. I personally enjoyed the Battleship gam the most to use with future students. However, all these activities provided engaging environments for students to develop their skills in these math concepts.