Exploring Geometry

Math learning follows a spiral. Children revisit topics over time, hopefully learning more and deepening understanding with each visit. All of the seven and eight year olds in my math group have had experience with shapes in general and pattern blocks in particular. Last week I pulled out the pattern blocks and had my group examine each piece. An activity like this is an opportunity for me to see where different group members are in terms of their math understanding of a topic. It also allows me to work with children at different levels of understanding as I am covering both basic information as well as some more advanced concepts.

Everyone could identify the name for triangle. Then I asked them what made a triangle a triangle. All knew it had 3 sides. Anything else? Do they know what the word triangle means? How about the prefix tri-? After several guesses, someone made the connection with tricycle. Then we looked at angle. Several had a sense of what an angle is, but could not quite put it into words. Once we got a better sense of angle, and I provided some words for the term, I asked about the "Triangle Area" that we live in. Several were able to identify the points of our geographic triangle (Durham, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill.) We went on and identified, described, and explored the other shapes: square, rhombus, trapezoid, and hexagon. Hexagon was identified by several as either a pentagon or an octagon, so we got to talk some more about prefixes as well as stop signs. Children this age love to play with shapes, so before we went on to do some of Marcy Cook's Young Geometry problem solving tasks, I gave them a chance to make their own shapes. As always the Marcy Cook activity was fun for them, and as I watched them work, I learned more about how each of them approaches such tasks.