A fun way to measure the perimeter!

Hi everyone! J Today I am going to talk about a task that can be really useful when we are studying the perimeter of the figures. The only materials that we need are ropes and laces. It is a good idea to ask the children to bring their own resources, but the teacher can have some extra material just in case.

First, the teacher can organize the class in little groups composed of 4 or 5 students in order to implement the cooperative methodology. After that, each group will have some flat geometric figures in their tables and they have to measure their perimeter. These figures can be made of cork. But how are they going to do it? Well, they will do so using the ropes and then measuring the piece of string that corresponds to the outline of each figure.

I think it is not a difficult task to carry out in class and it can be really interesting for children. After doing the activity, their concepts about perimeter and area will be clarified and they will clearly see the different between both things. So I pretty recommend this activity for your class!

Geometrical figures with the body!

Hi everyone! J Today I am going to talk about an activity we have done last year here in the university. This activity was carried out in the subject of Didactics in Physical Education, which shows that geometry can be an interdisciplinary subject.

In the task, two groups are formed. Therefore, these teams will be composed of 12 students more or less. All the members of the groups will cooperate between them and work together to reach a common aim. Thus, the cooperative methodology will be used.

In the activity, the teacher will say out loud the name of a geometrical figure or an object with the shape of a geometrical figure and each group will have to represent this figure with their bodies. For example, if we tell children to represent the traffic sign which means “forbidden”, they have to represent a circle and a rectangle inside.

It is clear that this task activates students’ motivation because they work together, move and check how geometry is present in daily life. Moreover, they use their body expression so it is related with Physical Education (interdisciplinary). As I really liked doing this activity, I take for granted that the students will love it too. So try it!

Didactic resources for your geometry class!

Hi everyone J Today, I am going to talk about didactic materials that we can use in our geometric class in Primary School.

It is extremely interesting to see the variety of materials and resources that we can use in our class. It is paradoxical the fact that many teachers do not real figures use in geometry class, even knowing that geometry is everywhere. Therefore, I would like to propose some materials that can be perfectly used with our Primary School students to make classes more practical and fun.

One interesting material that we can use is the Cuisenaire rods because children can build their own geometrical figures. Moreover, they can calculate the area and the perimeter depending on the colour of the rods that they use.

Another resource that can be really appealing for children is the Tangram. Through this didactic tool, children can also build their own figures and learn by doing.

Finally, the last didactic material that I would like to underline is the “geoplano”, in which students can also make their own figures. This tool gives us a lot of possibilities because we can create similar figures (with the same proportions) or we can make rigid transformations to different figures (such as rotations or translations).

All in all, all these materials are really appealing for children and they acquire a meaningful knowledge because they learn by doing. So I recommend all of them!

Let's make a structure!

Hi everyone! J Today, I am going to talk about an activity I did when I was in the first year of the high school. I did this task in Technology instead of Maths but it is completely related with geometry, so I think that this blog is a good opportunity to show it.

The activity consisted in building a structure through rolled paper sheets. The papers had to be tightly rolled so that the structure could be more resistant. In our case, rolls were joined together with silicone, but the activity can be adapted to primary school students and use another type of sticking substance, such us glue stick.

All these structures are composed of geometric figures. As we were divided into little groups to do it, each team had the possibility to decide how they would exactly do it. Thus, some groups made pyramidal structures and others made prisms, among others.

The common objective that each group had to achieve was that their structures bear a certain weight. I remember that most groups got a person from the class to place in the top of the structure. Challenge completed!

I totally recommend doing this activity because it is very appealing for children as they can work cooperatively and see the importance of geometry in real life (structures belong to architecture).

Here I can show you one example of these structures:

Learn geometry with Picasso!

Hi everyone! J Today, I am going to talk about how we can relate art and geometry. More specially, I am going to discuss how Picasso uses geometry figures in his artworks and how I was able to learn it when I was in Primary School due to a visit we did to the Picasso Museum.

The style that Picasso follows in his artworks is called Cubism, which belongs to the Avant-garde Movement. In these paintings, the traditional perspective disappears. In this way, the natural shapes are represented through geometrical figures. This style provokes the “multiple perspective”, in which an object is represented entire in a unique plane.

Thus, when I went with my classmates to the Picasso Museum I did an activity in which we had to represent ourselves in a “Cubism way”. Therefore, we had to use geometrical figures, lines and planes. This was my result:

To conclude this entry, I would like to say that, personally, I think that it is a really interesting way to make children closer to art and geometry. I remember this task positively and that means something. Therefore, I recommend carrying out a similar activity with your students!