My Weekly Report & Reflection 8 - 9

Hello everyone! Thanks for visiting my mathematics for educator’s blog again!

Through weeks 8 and 9 in mathematics class, I learned many valuable lessons that I can use in my future carer as a Junior/intermediate teacher. Furthermore, this week I will be explaining resources that I have used for units of mathematics involving geometry and spatial sense, as well as measurement. My mathematics class as well as myself explored and used resources that I would definitely implement within my future classroom. 

Week 8: Geometry & Spatial Sense

            Within the strand, geometry and spatial sense, in the mathematics curriculum, we focused on symmetry and line segments. For symmetry, we looked at geometric shapes, and drew the possible lines of symmetry on each shape, while rotating the shape 45 degrees to the right each time. An image of this is demonstrated below. 

 (Malatesta, 2018)

In addition to symmetry, we looked at line segments. We tested our knowledge in this, as we were given 3 different line segments, and asked to create as many triangles as possible. Thinking this would be an easy task to accomplish, we tried to create some triangles! Yet this became harder than we thought. Below are three images of the triangle attempts we took; within it we received one triangle and two that did not complete a correct triangle. 

 (Malatesta, 2018)

Week 9: Measurement

            Throughout week 9, we focused mainly on calculating perimeter. Within the class lecture we worked on calculating the perimeter of a rectangle using the smallest side lengths to create a perimeter of 64. This activity taught me something I have never known before! It taught me that a square is in fact a rectangle, below is our attempts at solving the problem and the second result was conducted when our group discovered that a square was a form of a rectangle. This is true as the only criteria are that a rectangle has parallel line segments. 

 (Malatesta, 2018)

            In addition, in terms of perimeter we explored how to use the largest amount of blocks to create the perimeter of 18 squares. We had to complete this by adding square blocks to the already created shape (displayed in pink below). 

 (Malatesta, 2018)

An activity I created for a junior level, of grade 5, was I began by explaining to my students what perimeter is, and how it is calculated. Following, explained the handout, and what is expected in each question. Within question one, students were expected to write down what perimeter is. Following, in question 2, they are asked to make an educated guess, on which shape they believe will have a bigger perimeter, then are asked to calculate this to test if they were correct. In question 3, students are asked to make use of the manipulatives, and trace 2 of the geometric shapes provided to them, once this is complete, they are asked to then calculate their perimeter. Lastly, as the difficulty of the question increases, students are asked to do a thinking question, and calculate the perimeter of Johnny’s backyard. As well as the biggest garden Johnny can build within his backyard following the guidelines of the question. Below is an image of the handout. 

(Malatesta, 2018)