Rich tasks for this chapter - page 241
- These are problem solving open-ended questions that require students to investigate symmetry and shape. The tasks can be given at the start of a topic and done as the students gain enough knowledge to complete them, inserted into a topic at an appropriate place, or given as homework, or extension.
- Miss Timm’s class
- Signs
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1. Miss Timm’s class
- You could get students to do this task outside and use 100 m of string to make the shapes, or use sheets of 1 cm isometric paper (all of the dots are exactly 1 cm apart).
- You could extend this task by asking students to choose two shapes of their own and see if they can use up exactly 100 m of string making the shapes.
- Students could make a scale model of each shape that they decide to make and present them attractively on a display board, along with the problem for their classmate. They could use coloured wool, pipe cleaners or similar to add interest.
2. Signs
- You could relate this task to an event coming up at your school or in the community.
- Encourage students to be creative and share their signs.
- Students could make a mystery sign with just the symbol on it and ask others to guess what the sign means.
- You could make this a group activity and have a competition to see which group comes up with the best set of signs.
- Students could be involved in creating the specific criteria and in the judgment of the results.
Symmetry - page 242
- Be able to describe the symmetrical properties of a shape or design.
- Discover the symmetrical properties of triangles and quadrilaterals
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Teacher notes
- Students often think that if a shape has rotational symmetry it also has line symmetry. While this is sometimes the case there are many shapes that have rotational but not line symmetry and students should be shown examples that illustrate this.
- Encourage students to notice symmetry in nature and everyday objects.
- You could discuss how symmetry is related to art and to many objects in our everyday lives such as wheels, cogs, kitchen implements and so on.
- Students could actually produce some simple cross-stitch patterns with symmetry (either as a design like the ones on page 242 of the Student Resource Book or with thread or yarn on thick paper, card or hessian). This topic could be linked to a topic in art or done as a homework extension.
- For the Practical on page 245 question 3, colour would be easy to add on a computer. Note: holding down the Shift key as you draw the shape from the shape menu in Word keeps the shape regular.
2-D shapes - page 245
- Understand diagonals and be able to draw them on a shape.
- Know the symmetrical properties of the special quadrilaterals.
- Sort shapes into groups with common properties or names.
- Discover that the interior angles of a triangle add to 180º.
- Construct a quadrilateral with four equal sides.
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Teacher notes
- Some students get confused with the names of shapes. Encourage students to name any shapes they are working with.
- It is important for students to explore the properties of shapes and the differences between shapes. The best way to do this is for students to work with materials and make shapes. Geoboards are an excellent tool for doing this.
