Visualizing Geometry

1. Students are introduced to 2-dimensional shapes, as a whole class.
2. Students are placed into groups of six to eight students per group.
3. Students work together and with their teacher to fill out charts telling them how many sides each figure has, vertexes, and if the sides are all the same length.
4. After students have had an opportunity to practice with their shapes they will then move onto the next center. (this could also be done the next day)
5. Once at this center students will have an opportunity to pull a shape out of a bag. The group has to correctly identify the shape, and then tell the teacher/adult a little about the shape.
6. After telling about the shape students will be instructed to create the shape they pulled with only their bodies.
7. When students are done creating the shape with their bodies the teacher/adult will take a picture of their body-shape.
8. If they constructed their shape quickly enough then they are aloud to create another shape from the bag, repeat steps six and seven.
9. After all students have gotten a chance to go through all centers the teacher needs to have the camera, and needs to print the pictures.
10. The teacher then needs to create a book using the students' body-shapes. When creating the body-shape book it is helpful to leave room on the bottom of each page so students can write below the picture, what shape they see. Be sure to laminate your book pages so that it may be reused. (this book could be placed in a center for the next days math lesson also)

This is also a great activity to extend welcome to parents/guardians. They can watch and help students at the center where they need to create the shape with their bodies.