When asked, an overwhelming majority of students found that a paper and pencil test for our geometry unit to be, “not
fun!” Of course not! When doing transformational geometry it is crucial to have a concrete 'hands-on' experience. On Friday we brainstormed, as a
class, the success criteria needed to assess our understanding of
transformations in geometry.
Today we had a fantastic day of concrete, REAL LIFE Mathematics!!
In small groups the students created our life size polygons that we would be manipulating.
In small groups the students created our life size polygons that we would be manipulating.
Next, individually theycomposed four transformation operations. One of each type and the fourth was a combination transformation for grade 6 and a repeat for grade 5.
After recess, we made our way down to the gym to create the first quadrant
of the Cartesian plane using the tiles on the floor. This job was laborious but it was completed it with
a smile. :) Normal grid paper is boring;
with a bit of coloured tape we were able to jazz up our coordinate system.
We worked in pairs to practice the transformations written
by our classmates and achieved success. We used this practice to reinforce
vocabulary and get used to working with a big shapes.
We took a sample of questions for the assessment, for
example Ella’s reflection was, “reflect a polygon across the x=3 line.”
The students all passed with flying colours!
At the end of the day we had time to work on unit of inquiry and students
wrote reflections on their projects thus far.
Thanks for reading,
Aldaine Hunt
