{"id":987,"date":"2011-08-25T15:39:37","date_gmt":"2011-08-25T15:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/?p=987"},"modified":"2011-08-25T15:50:48","modified_gmt":"2011-08-25T15:50:48","slug":"the-most-important-thing-about-a-square","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=987","title":{"rendered":"The Most Important Thing About a Square"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I love starting the school year teaching geometry. \u00a0I use it as a hook to get my students interested in math. \u00a0Not that they aren’t. \u00a0But often, kids come into class thinking that math is all about adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. \u00a0I know this because it’s the first thing I ask during day 1 math.<\/p>\n

So I kick off the math school year in geometry. \u00a0It’s visual, hands-on, and fun. \u00a0All math is…as students will discover through the course of the year. \u00a0But geometry hooks them.<\/p>\n

So as we’re studying geometry using geoboards or building polygons with straws, I sneak in all the math vocabulary. \u00a0Things like parallel lines, congruent shapes, or right angles. \u00a0It’s easy to learn this if it’s in the context of something fun and creative.<\/p>\n

I’ll re-visit geometry several times throughout the school year and keep adding on to what we have learned. \u00a0But when I feel the students are ready, I introduce The Important<\/em> project. \u00a0They’re now going to get an opportunity to write what they learned about all the properties of shapes. \u00a0Sometimes I stick with just polygons, 2-dimensional shapes. \u00a0Sometimes I throw in polyhedrons, 3-dimensional shapes.<\/p>\n

I begin by reading the book, The Important Book<\/em> by Margaret Wise Brown. \u00a0It gives the students the format of the assignment. \u00a0For example, it starts with: \u00a0The most important thing about a spoon is that you eat with it. \u00a0It is like a little shovel, you hold it in your hand, you can put it in your mouth, it isn’t flat, it’s hollow, and it spoons things up. \u00a0But the important thing about a spoon is that you eat with it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Once they get the idea, I have them to choose 4-5 shapes we’ve been studying and write their own Important Book. \u00a0They get to add illustrations, as well. \u00a0But it really gets them to reflect on the properties of these shapes. Which ones have parallel lines? \u00a0Which have acute angles…and how many? \u00a0Which are made up of faces? <\/em> etc. \u00a0It’s a great way to reinforce the vocabulary.<\/p>\n

They may write something like: \u00a0The important thing about a triangle is that it has exactly three straight sides. \u00a0It has three verticies. \u00a0Sometimes it has three acute angles. \u00a0Sometimes it has one right angle. \u00a0It can never have more than one obtuse angle. \u00a0It is a closed figure. \u00a0But the important thing about a triangle is that it has exactly three straight sides.<\/em><\/p>\n

So what do you think is the most important thing about a square?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love starting the school year teaching geometry. \u00a0I use it as a hook to get my students interested in math. \u00a0Not that they aren’t. \u00a0But often, kids come into class thinking that math is all about adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. \u00a0I know this because it’s the first thing I ask during day 1 math. So I kick off the math school year in geometry. \u00a0It’s visual, hands-on, and fun. \u00a0All math is…as students will discover through the course…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,51],"tags":[63,64,21,22,59,65,61],"class_list":["post-987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geometry-kids-and-math-3-5","category-kids-and-math-3-5","tag-geometry-2","tag-k-5-geometry","tag-karyn-hodgens","tag-kidnexions","tag-kids-math","tag-math-lesson","tag-number-sense-2"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Most Important Thing About a Square - Karyn's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=987\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Most Important Thing About a Square - Karyn's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I love starting the school year teaching geometry. \u00a0I use it as a hook to get my students interested in math. \u00a0Not that they aren’t. \u00a0But often, kids come into class thinking that math is all about adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. \u00a0I know this because it’s the first thing I ask during day 1 math. 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