The Shapes of Things

Our geometry unit has been a lot of fun. Earlier in the year we learned about some of the basic 2 dimensional shapes, and discussed some of their attributes. Besides the typical square, triangle, circle, and rectangle, we also learned the names of shapes like trapezoid, rhombus (not diamond), skinny rhombus, irregular triangle and hexagon. In our math topic 7 we revisited some of these shapes and added size and line of symmetry to our vocabulary of math words.  We just finished learning about, and discussing, solid figures - spheres, cubes, cones, and cylinders. We learned about which solid figures will stack, roll, or slide - and sometimes a combination of the three. Geometry is so much fun because shapes, 2D and solid, are all around us. In the following activity we read the book Around the Park by Christianne C. Jones, and discussed what our shapes could represent when placed on a mural, or scene, of a park and a beach.  It was so wonderful to see them applying their knowledge of shapes to things we see in real life. As you can see in their murals, a hexagon could be a sun, a rhombus could be a kite. Two triangles when combined also form a kite. Squares when combined formed a beach towel on the sand, and a trapezoid turned "upside down" made a wonderful sailboat...so creative.