Extra Geometry Activities: Grades 2/3

	Students could go on a field trip where they do a nature walk looking at all the shapes and solids in nature. Students do a walk among man made areas looking for shapes and solids and how we use them. Create a chart to used through the unit to record any items they find in the classroom that can be categorized under a shape. The shapes will be on one side of the chart and the items will be listed on the other. Literature connection - read the book Shapes by Philip Yenawine. It discusses the ideas that can be conveyed by different shapes. Have students identify shapes within the pictures Do an activity where you open up a box to reinforce the idea that a solid is made of other shapes. Have students do it and record findings. Art connection - Children use modeling clay to construct models of geometric solids. Students pick a solid and make it, get students to discuss the characteristics of the solid. For kinesthetic/visual learners. Social Studies connection - Geometric shapes can be used to instruct, inform and warn people. Children can identify shapes in their community. Students go for a walk looking at signs, logos, symbols, emblems. Have students identify meanings. Literature Connection - Read the story Grandfather Tang's Story by Anne Topert. In the story grandfather tells his granddaughter a story using tangram pieces to represent the animals in his tale. After reading the story have students make the animals done in the book. Students could create their own story and animals. Literature Connection - Read Turn Around, Think About, Look About Book by Beau Gardner. This book presents graphics that can be viewed in four different way by holding the book on each side. Challenge the students to draw a combination of shapes that make different pictures when viewed from different sides. Students could design a home with solids. They would be given specifications on shapes, sizes and patterns. Students would draw their plan and show different view of the structure. Students begin to appreciate how shapes can be applied to real world Students could look at the shapes of stamps. Stamps from various countries have different shapes. Do a discussion on why the stamps would be of different sizes for different countries. Look at the pictures represents on them. New Zealand has circular stamps, Congo has triangular stamps. Provide mirrors for students to use to discover symmetry. Have a variety of shapes that they can put the mirrors on and observe what happens. Encourage them to move the mirror around and tilt it to see the effects. Symmetry Sing-Along, In a small group one child sings a short musical phrase of up to five notes. The listeners repeat the phrase exactly and then sing back the notes in reverse order to form an example of musical symmetry. Eg. do re mi - mi re do. Have students do a short dance routine while singing to the left and then to the right. An activity with origami can be conducted to look at the shapes that are involved when the paper is folded to create an object. Read the short poem by Shel Silverstein "Reflection" from A Light in the Attic. In the verse the poet talks about "Upside-Down Man" which is the name he has given for the mirror-image reflection of himself that he sees. Read the story and ask children what they look like when they look into puddles or lakes. Have students create their own drawings and compare them with the book. Working on symmetry. Examine the structures of buildings in science and how they are able to stand up. Buildings like skyscrapers, CN tower, Effiel tower, pyramids. Play the game 20 questions where a group of students or a pair work together. One person secretly thinks of a solid. The other player asks questions try to guess the solid. The questions must be ones that can be answered by "yes" or "no". Only 20 questions can be asked. Social Studies - Look at the different shapes that are important in various cultures. Research what the circle means in native culture, cross (two rectangles) Physical Education - Could do a traditional square dance Students go on a scavenger hunt in the classroom and the school in groups. Students are given a list of shapes and solids they must find. They find the objects record them and the shape they are. Create a bulletin board with the poem in the middle: Little shapes the I can see How I wonder what you'll be When I cut and glue you down Will you be a moose or clown Perhaps a cat, or truck, or tree We will see what you can be! Students will create pictures using shapes at an activity center or as a whole class. They will trace shapes and add them to the bulletin board. Each student is given a card with the name of a shape on it. The student does not see the card as it hangs on his or her back. The students have to work on their oral skills by trying to describe to each other what object is hanging on their backs. Excellent site on Tangrams. The site allows you to drag the pieces around and make different pictures. They even supply pictures to copy. http://enchantedmind.com/tangram/tangram.htm Play "Chain Game" using attribute blocks. Person A puts down piece. Person B joins a piece which is different in only two ways ,etc. Game over when one player uses all his/her shapes or no one can use a piece. Art - Create mazes that are of different shapes. Language Arts - students could write about a world where everything was one shape. What things would be like, how people lived, food, clothing, etc. Students would illustrate their world. Read the poem first: A World of Shapes Once upon a time there was a rectangle world One day a wizard made a circle Then everyone wanted a circle world Then the wizard made a square And everyone wanted a square world Now the wizard made a triangle Now everyone wanted a triangle world One day there was an earthquake Today the world has many shapes Physical Education -Gymnastic movements. Shapes students can make while in static positions. Shapes of the bases students use. Get into fractions using shapes Look at a shape like a pentagon, ask students how many triangles, or tapezoids, etc can be fit into the bigger shape. Once it is know how many shapes can fit start to take them away and word the subtractions using fractions. Using a geoboard ask students to make a shape that covers _ the board, then 1/3, then _ etc. Look at the web site http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/Patterns Participate in some of the activities. Students print off copies, do the fractions using the shapes and send in their designs Social Studies - Working on map skills; Students cut construction paper rectangles, squares, circles, trapezoids etc. Students pretend they are a spider sitting on the ceiling. Create a map of your classroom using the precut shapes. Add details. Science - Look for symmetry in natural objects like leaves, seeds etc. Do pattern rubbings of objects for records and for looking at symmetry. Social Studies - Look at the patterns of shapes used in the traditional clothing of cultures around the world. Social Studies - Examine the shapes of the shelters that different cultures build in different parts of the world and why they build them this way.
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