Measurement & Geometry

Chapter 13 | 2D shapes

Teacher Resource Sheets

Getting Started

Animal shapes (Getting started 13)

(You could use this idea before starting this chapter to discover which shapes students are familiar with.)

This displays the Getting started on page 233 of the Student Resource Book.

Allow children to find their own ways to make shapes when working co-operatively.
Be aware that having some parts of the body touch the head may be offensive in some cultures, so allow children to choose their own way and their own place within the shape.
Materials such as chalk, circles of string or elastic may also be made available to students.
Photographs could be taken of the shapes which children could then name and make into a “Shape Book” or display.
You could also extend this activity by playing Simon says.

For example “Simon says draw me a square in the air.” or “Simon says walk me a hexagon.”

Naming and describing 2-D shapes

Ziggy's dictionary (Teacher Resource Sheet 50)

(You could use this sheet to introduce vocabulary or to create a word bank for students to refer to during the section on naming and describing shapes page 236 of the Student Resource Book.)

This builds understanding of the vocabulary used to describe 2-D shape features in the text. Students are asked to make s between words which are opposites.

Students can be given shapes from the printable masters for page 235 and 243 of this chapter. 2-D shapes, Practical - Break up - Shapes (2 pages)
ing opposites could be done by drawing a line between two opposites or making a copy so that students can out the shapes and gluing them together as opposite pairs. The vocabulary will help students to write precise descriptions of 2-D shapes.

Open or closed? (Teacher Resource Sheet 51)

(You could use this sheet with page 237 to support the teaching section or to introduce Activity 2 of the Student Resource Book.)

This displays a variety of open and closed shapes. Students are asked to identify those shapes that are open, closed or polygons. Students asked to write down the letters of the shapes that fit each criteria.

This sheet could be followed up by asking students to draw an additional shape which could be included in each group. Drawings could then be collected and organized into a classroom display for future reference.

Te taparau – The polygon (Teacher Resource Sheet 52)

(You could use this sheet after the teaching section on Polygons on page 237 of the Student Resource Book.)

This summarises the relationship between the name of a polygon and the number of its sides in Māori.

In this example, “tapa” means sides. Many other languages use the number of sides to differentiate between shapes. If you have students from other cultures in your class you may want to explore the names given to polygons to see if their language has similar s.
The video ‘Te whanau taparau – the polygon family’, (a Maori shape song, with translation) shows young children sorting shapes. It could be a good introduction to this activity or for practise of Te Reo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgaKoOeYpNk.

Sorting 2-D shapes

As simple as A, B, C (Teacher Resource Sheet 53)

(You could use this sheet in conjunction with Activity 4 on page 242 of the Student Resource Book.)

This displays 14 different shapes, identified by letters of the alphabet. Students must identify the shapes that share a similar property.

There is one shape (Shape G) which could belong to two groups. Students need to understand that some shapes can be sorted into more than one group – these are the shapes that could be placed within the intersection of the circles in a Venn diagram.

Exploring shapes

Shapes inside shapes (Teacher Resource Sheet 54)

(You could use this sheet to initiate further discussion during the extend the investigation section about triangles on page 244 of the Student Resource Book.)

This challenging activity develops the idea that a range of 2D-shapes can be joined in different ways to make larger shapes.