How To Teach Geometry So Students Actually Have Fun!

I love talking about math. But my very favourite part of math is geometry.  Why?  It's hands-on learning, incorporates lots of centers and games, and all students can participate equally.  It is engaging for children and fun to teach!

I was fortunate enough to be chosen to attend a week-long seminar in learning how to teach geometry put on by the Ontario Ministry of Education.  After an intense five-day training session, I was exhausted but newly in love with geometry.  Let me share some of the strategies I learned.

Hands-on Learning

We all know the benefits of hands-on learning for children.  It is natural, involves problem-solving and developing a deeper understanding of concepts, and allows children to create connections to the real world.  And, of course, it is fun!  Kids love anything they can touch and feel and geometry is very hands-on.

Children will develop their spatial sense and knowledge of 2-D shapes and 3-D objects by manipulating them in their hands, looking at them, turning them in different ways, and visualizing how they fit together.  They explore their properties:  Can they stack or roll?  Do they have points or a curved surface?  How many sides? How can we facilitate this?

1. Have detailed anchor charts for students to refer to.  I probably had about ten different ones related just to geometry posted around the room.  Name the shapes and objects and label their properties such as the number of faces, vertices, and edges.  My students liked to go up to the charts with a shape or object to compare it and decide which one they had.
2. Read picture books about shapes.  "The Greedy Triangle" by Marilyn Burn was one of my favourites, a story about a triangle that kept wanting more sides and angles.
3. Have lots of 2-D shapes and 3-D objects on hand for students to sort.  I would pair students together and give them a handful of objects.  One student would make a sorting rule and the other would try to guess it.  (This was also a great time for quickly assessing who could sort and by what attribute or property.)
4. Give students a shape or object.  Challenge them to find as many real-life examples as they can in the classroom.  For example, a rectangle could be a door or a window.  A box of tissues or a board eraser could be a rectangular prism.
5. Give them "free time" with pattern blocks, objects, tangrams, geoboards, pentominoes, etc. to explore and give students experience with the physical aspect of geometry. This is where you will see lots of problem-solving, creativity, and learning going on.
6. Explain to students that all polygons with 3 sides are triangles, with 4 sides are quadrilaterals, 5 sides pentagons, etc.  There is no such thing as an "upside down" triangle!

Games and Centers

I would spend at least a week of a 3-week math unit on centers and games.  I considered them that important.  I put desks together to make groups of  4.  Behaviour was not usually a problem because everyone had something to keep their hands busy.  

2-D Shapes

• Concentration - make pairs of cards showing a variety of regular and irregular polygons (ones that look like standard shapes and others that don't).  Students put them facedown and have to make a matching pair by counting the number of sides and visually matching them.
• Pattern Blocks - take a handful of blocks and make a shape.  Trace it.  Then, using the same blocks, make another shape and trace it.  Compare to see how they are different.  You may be lucky enough to have a Pattern Block book of blackline master pictures that students can cover with blocks. This is also an excellent center.
• Geoboards - use elastics to create a variety of polygons.  Then have students draw the shapes on dot paper and label them.
• Tangrams - I had a Geometry Club at lunchtime where students would come in and use the manipulatives.  It was here that I noticed a Grade 1 student, who struggled in all areas of the curriculum, put together the most complex tangram that even Grade 6's couldn't do.  This child had a high degree of spatial awareness, a strength that may not have shown up on paper and pencil tasks. It was wonderful to see their confidence in themselves grow!
• Pentominoes - Pentominoes are plastic polygons consisting of five squares attached to each other in different variations.  Give students some grid chart paper and challenge them to colour in five squares that touch each other in as many different ways as they can.  After that, students can put pentominoes together to make different shapes.

3-D Objects

• 
  Polydrons - if available, these plastic shapes that fit together to make nets of 3-D objects are incredible for learning about their properties.  Students will learn from each other how to make rectangular prisms, cubes, and pyramids.
• What's My Name? - put objects in a bag and students take turns putting their hand in, without looking, and guessing what it is by feeling it.  I would have the anchor charts available for student reference.
• Toothpicks & Clay - you can also use marshmallows and straws to make a variety of three-dimensional objects.
• Trace all of the faces of a 3-D object to see what shapes they are made of.
• Sorting Games - depending on the grade, students would sort objects with either one or two attributes (Venn Diagram).  Other students in the group had to guess the rule.  The goal was to come up with a rule that I couldn't figure out.
• Building Structures - Students love building and what is better than 3-D objects to build with.  Challenge them to build separate structures or work together to build the best structure.  

Symmetry:

• Symmetry Game - for two people.  Put a long pencil on the desk.  The first student places a pattern block on one side.  The second student places the same kind of block on the other side.  This continues until both are satisfied with the shape they have made.
• Folded paper - have students fold construction paper in half and draw or cut a shape out to make a symmetrical shape.  Paste these shapes on another piece of construction paper to make a "picture".  I call it "math art".  

As you can see, there are many ways to use geometry in the primary grades that are fun and engaging for your students.  By observing them and watching the learning happening in your classroom, you are having fun, too!

Our Geometry Math Packages

Our geometry math packages for Grades 1, 2, and 3 make your job even easier!  Each is a guide with teaching slides (in colour) and student worksheets and activities (in b/w) for assessment and evaluation.  Simply use a projection device to show the teaching slide to the class and then hand out the related student activity.  To access these products, click on them or visit our store at  A Cloud Full of Learning Teaching Resources | Teachers Pay Teachers