Monday, September 13, 2010

Math, Shapes and more Shapes

I mentioned earlier in the week that Selena had learned how to take a rectangle and make it into a square, then by folding the paper again made a triangle. I thought it would be fun to expand on this new found skill.

We started out with the rectangle and I asked Selena to make a square, then we unfolded it and I asked her how many squares make a rectangle? We used her pattern blocks to help her understand this concept easier.

100_3493 I then asked her to refold the paper and make a triangle out of it. Again we unfolded the paper and I asked her how many triangles were made from the rectangle?

100_3495She quickly placed four triangles on her piece of paper, so we counted one rectangle, two squares and four triangles.

100_3497 We found a diamond shaped pattern block, and it didn’t take Selena long to figure it would take two triangles to make a diamond.

I then took the hexagon, and asked her how many triangles it would take to make this shape. She struggled a bit with this one, so I got her started, basically just showing her how to place two triangles to begin her pattern, she then finished and determined it would take six.

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We continued on with the trapezoid shape. Selena was beginning to get tired of this, but I urged she at least try to finish this one. Again I asked her how many triangles it would take to make her trapezoid.

100_3499 She got two on there, and quit, I asked her if she could fit one more on it. She looked and examined it for a minute and decided that she could indeed get one more triangle on the trapezoid. Though they moved around a bit under her little fingers, she did observe that she could fit three triangles on this one trapezoid.

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Selena had fun trying to guess the amount of triangles she would need, then trying to see if she had guessed right. I know this will be a definite exercise we will do as often as she will work with it. I personally was never great with geometry, so it is my hope that by starting young, Selena will be better in geometry then I was.

I am linking this up at Joyful Learner, come and see what other families are doing in math.

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5 comments:

  1. I never really liked geometry that much either. I didn't like proofs. I liked algebra better. Good activity.

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  2. We are going to be working with squares this week, too! Fun and valuable learning for Selena!

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  3. Great exercise. I like using simple shapes to build more complex shapes. You might want to read "The Greedy Triangle" - it plays with this idea.

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  4. Great idea, and very clever girl! I have a quilt design set that is full of little triangles in all different colors. I should dig it out and see if it helps my son with that lesson - he definitely doesn't know about splitting a rectangle into two squares, square into two triangles, etc. yet. And I'm pretty sure he has never heard of a trapezoid. (Fancier shapes are on my list of things to teach). :)

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  5. I remember math problems on the SAT that dealt with figuring out area which involved being able to break apart shapes. I had intended on teaching her this concept when JC was older but I guess you can start young as long as it's a game for the child. I love how it began as a natural discovery from Selena!

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