tw When it comes to math, geometry seems to be in a whole different league. Some kids fall in love with it instantly, while it seems challenging for other kids. One of the great things about geometry is that there are so many hands-on activities we can provide for our students, which makes it lots of fun! Here are some of my favorite geometry activities: 1. Start With Shapes I like to have students start with shapes they've known since they were tiny, like triangles, squares, and circles. We draw these on whiteboards as a whole class. Next we draw the more advanced shapes like pentagons, hexagons, octagons, trapezoids, and even the rhombus! This brings us to a discussion of polygons and we can classify shapes that way. Besides whiteboards, there are lots of ways for kids to work with shapes, like Popsicle sticks (which are also great to use to illustrate lines like parallel, intersecting, and perpendicular), LEGOS, Geoboards, and even clothespins which can be clipped together. 2. Marshmallow Geometry I like this activity because any time you add food, kids are all in! Using marshmallows and toothpicks, kids can make simple 2-D shapes, and also 3-D shapes. Plus, this activity is the perfect place to emphasize vertices since each time you add a marshmallow, you place it at a corner. If you have food allergies or school regulations which prohibit food, you can substitute the marshmallows for Play-Doh. 3. Use an Anchor Chart Once students have had lots of exploration time with shapes, it's time to discuss their attributes. I like to actually make this anchor chart with the kids' help. I explain how it will be organized, from the smallest number of sides to the greatest. We also notice patterns of sides and vertices as we create it. I do ask kids for examples of shapes, and sometimes they get really creative with this! 4. Go on a Shape Scavenger Hunt This is an activity that is great to do with some parent helpers if you have any. I like to send iPad cameras with each group, clipboards and pencils, and a record sheet. Kids record the shape that was found, the type of object it was, and where it was found. It's really fun to see what shapes they're able to find while walking around the school campus! 5. Incorporate Some Art I am a huge art proponent so I add art wherever it fits in. Geometry is a great time to do either geometric animals, robots, or people. I usually choose one of those categories but really you could make it a wide open project too! I shared another fun geometric art activity on a blog post I wrote called Incorporating Art in the Classroom. This one is from Literacy Loves Company. As a follow up to geometric lessons on lines and angles, I cut polygons from white construction paper for each child. I have kids use rulers and sharpies and follow my step by step directions of drawing lines and then finding obtuse angles, right angles, perpendicular lines, and so on. After the lesson is done, kids add color to these, making it a really fun art piece. 6. Add Some Kinesthetic Learning Kids need movement and it's easy to add some movement with this unit. For this activity, students will be on the floor working with a partner to make different kinds of lines (parallel, intersecting, and perpendicular), shapes, and angles (right, acute, and obtuse) using their bodies. An alternative is to have kids stand up and use their arms to illustrate these geometric concepts. Another kinesthetic activity is to gather Chinese jump ropes or packages of sewing elastic. If you use elastic, one package is enough for one small group of 5 - 6 kids. The idea is to have students use the elastic as a group to make the shapes you call out (types of triangles are especially good) or types of angles. Different kinds of lines can also be made if two groups work together. 7. Add Some Task Cards and Games Task cards are one of my go-to tools! Kids love the game-like format and I know that they're getting really focused learning on whatever math concept we're working on. I have used them as centers/stations, for whole class math time, for one on one, and as exit slips. If you'd like some pre-made math task cards specifically for geometry, click here; 3rd Grade Geometry Bundle 4th Grade Geometry Bundle 5th Grade Geometry Bundle 8. Read Mentor Text I love it when I can tie reading into math too! The books above are some of my favorite mentor texts for geometry. I love all of the visual examples included. 9. Use Music I just found these songs by Numberock on YouTube and they are perfect for this unit! Really great pictures and catchy tunes: Parallel, Perpendicular and Intersecting Lines Angles Types of Triangles 10. Practice Angles Seriously, next to long division, measuring angles is probably the most difficult math skill students will face in the elementary years! It doesn't help too that it is introduced in fourth grade in common core and then not even mentioned in 5th grade standards. Oh well! One activity that helps is to have kids use graph paper and write their first name in all capital block letters. Students can measure any angles created by the intersection of the letter's lines. Another favorite activity for practicing angles is to take tape and make different lines, which create angles on a desk, table, or even on sheets of butcher paper. Kids use protractors to measure angles and then write with expos (or markers on the butcher paper) right on the desks/tables! Great way to add some fun to this difficult concept! Hope you've found at least a few ideas you can use for your geometry unit! I did want to let you know that I have Math Task Card Bundles for every grade from 3rd - 5th. Each bundle has 30 sets of 32 task cards that cover ALL STANDARDS (CCSS) for those grades. I love prepping them at the beginning of the year and then grabbing whatever concept we're working on for some added practice. If you'd like to take a look: 3rd Grade Math Task Cards Bundle 4th Grade Math Task Cards Bundle 5th Grade Math Task Cards Bundle Thanks so much for stopping by! If you like this post, I would love it if you would pin it or share it with a teacher friend! For more ideas and strategies focused on Upper elementary, be sure to sign up for The Teacher Next Door's free email newsletter right HERE. I'd love to connect with you! Facebook Pinterest Instagram TpT Store
Have a geoboard, but not sure how to use it? Learn great ideas for hands on math exploration + grab a free set of geoboard activity cards in this post!
Grab a set of marshmallow and toothpick geometry cards to print and build with your kids. It is such a fun way to learn geometric shapes!
Athletes use angles to analyze their performance. This sports STEM activity challenges kids to measure athlete angles in Olympic Sports.
Geometry is one of those teaching units that seems to fly by. Your students likely will already have a lot of prior knowledge from Kinder and 1st grade that you’re simply building upon. This means that you can really make your geometry lessons extra hands-on, because your kids will be ready to dig r
Add these 6 angle activities to teach acute, right, straight, and obtuse angles to prepare your students to identify different types of angles.
Geometry can be a lot of fun OR it can be really confusing. This post shares 10 ways to review attributes of geometric shapes to make it fun!
This product is a fun math activity that would be a great way to start a geometry unit on classifying polygons. Easy prep with big returns! Learning the characteristics of quadrilaterals, triangles, and using measurement skills are all combined in this hands-on geometry activity. Students also love a challenge and will have fun trying to make each of the shapes using only the 5 sticks. Product comes ready to share in Google Classroom or can be printed in limited color or black and white. Geared for upper elementary, 4th, 5th, and 6th grades as well as a fun homeschooling activity. Included in this product: •Teacher help page •Student Instruction page •Shape chart check-off page •Shape/term definition page (blank) •Answer keys •Visual key of shapes •Extension activities Google slide version for group challenge Google docs to easily assign in Google Classroom Check out my other math products! Math Word Problems Task Cards Math Word Problems Classification Posters Math Bell Ringers Vol 1 Math Bell Ringers Vol 2 Concentration Math Games Tangram Math Challenge Divisibility Math Rap and Game Fraction Games with Dominoes Follow my store and save! You'll know when I post new products, and they are on sale for the first 24 hours! Don't forget feedback...it is win-win. I love it and you get TpT credits!! Let me know if you have any questions! Check out my store for other fun resources. [email protected] Thanks, Kate
Rotation, reflection, and translation made easy.
5 Activities to Teach Angles
Athletes use angles to analyze their performance. This sports STEM activity challenges kids to measure athlete angles in Olympic Sports.
Are you looking for super fun measurement worksheets and activities for kindergarten?? You found them!! Your students will LOVE these hands-on learning activities and fun, extra practice worksheets that teach a variety of kindergarten measurement concepts.
Looking for a fun and enagaging way to teach linear measurement? Check out these monster themed measurement activities that make learning fun
Laura Candler's Geometry File Cabinet includes helpful freebies and teaching resources for the upper elementary grades.
An educational blog
You found the perfect summer math activity for measurement conversions! Your students will LOVE to practice metric and customary measurement conversions with this solve the room activity. Students will find the problems around the room, solve the problem, then write the answers on their recording sheets.
Teaching geometry can be FUN! Take a look at these geometry videos, books, anchor charts, activities, games, and freebies! Perfect for 1st and 2nd grade!
Explore measurement with this simple hands-on perimeter activity for kids, a Perimeter Lab math invitation. They'll measure, calculate, and have fun.
A fun and engaging Geometry Project on Measuring Angles where students design a Putt-Putt Course. Examples, rubrics, worksheets, and more included!
These FREE printable geometry nets will make learning about shapes fun and easy!
With the beginning of our geometry units in 6th grade math, it has been all about angles and triangles this past week! Thanks to some creative (and cheap!) angle ideas I found on social media, I was able to incorporate some new things in my classroom this year as we start geometry! First off, this fun idea to reinforce a basic understanding of angles! With some leftover fun tape from Office Depot, a little card stock to write the angles, and about ten minutes, I made this fun entryway into the classroom. I can't take credit for the idea, but am happy to share it! It definitely caught the students attention and had them thinking about different angles! The second fun idea I found (again... can't take credit for this one) I was able to use with my math intervention groups this week. After we had learned about different angle relationships (vertical angles, supplementary angles, and complementary angles), I covered our front dry-erase table with table at various angles. I then went through and measure the minimum number of angles they would need to be able to find all of the missing angles without a protractor. This turned out to be a great problem solving challenge and really promoted teamwork and working together. I could also see this working out great as a math center during math workshop. UPDATE: I recently added a full set of Angle Relationships Task Cards to my TpT store! It currently includes over 70 challenging angle problems and 4 different levels of difficulty! With the start of geometry, I was also able to try out one of my newest units of Math Task Cards: Triangles, Quadrilaterals, and Transformations. I now have two sets of task cards up in my store. A set of Math Task Cards, which are a little more basic problems. Then, for students that finish these quickly, I have them try the Math Enrichment Task Cards. Having these more challenging task cards makes it easy to push my higher students and keep them challenged! Here are a couple shots of the prep and final product of some of these task cards. I always print out six cards for each topic, which is what I need for my math workshop front table group. If I have time I corner round the corners and laminate to help them last! Geometry has also allowed me to finally get to what is probably my favorite Challenge of the Week problem! I recently updated this freebie with five more questions that could be used, so be sure to re-download it if you have already grabbed this one from my store in the past! So that's what we have been up to in 6th grade math recently. I'd love to hear what you have all been working on in your classrooms! And how about some humor to get everyone on their way? Who knew that One Direction is now a swear word?
Get hands on outdoor maths activities for KS2 to help your children or students enjoy learning. See how you can enjoy teaching maths outside!
I've heard it from teacher after teacher: " I dread teaching measurement every year. " It's hard to blame them. There's nothing ground-shaking about measurement. There's nothing exciting about metric vs. customary. It's just one of those skills that our stud
Get the bundle... Or purchase individually... Let's talk guided math. We started implementing guided math in my school about 2 years ago. Prior to my guided math awakening I was making 4 math centers per day. I found myself stressed about not only the excruciating prep of creating so many activities each day, but I also struggled to get finished with the centers. When the idea of guided math was introduced, I greeted the change with open arms. So here's what works for me. I implement guided math by creating 5 math centers per week. I group my students heterogeneously and they rotate to a new center each day. During this time, I pull students who struggled during the math lesson and provide a reteach lesson individually. This means that most of my math centers are completed independently by the students. I'm lucky enough to have a full-time assistant in my classroom who is able to take a math center are help others while I'm with my reteach group. Here's how I organize my group rotations each week... I write student names on each group. I laminated stars and write the weekly center on each star with dry-erase and attach a magnet. When I rotate groups, I simply move the stars over 1 place. This way, students know which center to go to. I organize centers in numbered buckets shown below. See? Easy breezy! Currently, I'm working with my students on addition and subtraction. I'd love to share some resources I've found to be useful in my guided math groups. First, I made a Guided Math Center Bundle. You can get it HERE. This week, we used the Spin and Subtract center. Here, students spin subtraction sentences. This is great because I was actually able to use it 2 weeks in a row. Because they spin different combinations of numbers, the possibilities are endless! I also used a similar Spin & Add center. Here, students build number sentences. Addition & Subtraction I made some lower-maintenance addition math worksheets which require no-prep! Hellloooo sanity-saver! Here are some of the activities I'll be using! Shapes geometry math worksheets Download it HERE Measurement Measurement Worksheets
When a math student is learning to find the area of a circle in geometry, activities help their understanding so much! This discovery activity and FREE WORKSHEET is a great way to help middle school and high school students understand the formula.
Hands-on learning experiences are vital to any successful Math program, particularly Measurement and Geometry, but can sometimes be quite time consuming to prepare. Including this Australian curriculum aligned Math Centre Folder in your program will eliminate that worry for you as well as engage your students interest in measuring and understanding Area.
Looking for a fun and enagaging way to teach linear measurement? Check out these monster themed measurement activities that make learning fun
So, yesterday I showed you how I got my angle studies kicked off with my students–how I solidified understanding of “right angle”. We had lots left to accomplish–so I’ll try to share some of the different lessons and activities we did over the next days! Tip 1: If you can get your hands on thin […]
Geometric Art
Want a fun way to teach measurement that can be adapted for all students? Let me introduce MEASUREMENT TAG!
From "Perimeter People" to Cheez-It squares, there are lots of fun ways to learn.
Recently we’ve been having a lot of fun with our math lessons. We explored area...
