Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Lego Geometry - angles


Math is not a favorite subject for either of my children, even though it comes so easily to Max. I am always looking for a way to make it more fun, more appealing, and nothing is more appealing to my kids than Legos. So, when we started a geometry unit, I thought it would be a perfect pairing. I sorted through the Lego baskets and pulled pieces that would work well with line segments and angles, our first lessons. I mostly selected the thin, single row Legos you see above, in different lengths. I introduced the concept of lines and line segments using the pieces, then we made parallel and perpendicular lines using the bricks.

Taking those line segments and perpendicular lines, we snapped them together (or pivoted them, in the case of perpendicular lines) to create angles. We opened them to different widths to show acute, right and obtuse angles.


We traced them in our math journals and labeled the three different kinds of angles. You need to trace the inside of the angle, not the outside. It also helps if someone holds it, because they have a tendency to shift on you while you are tracing!
                             
                            

The next day I told the kids to create five different angles and trace them in their notebooks. I expected that they would make five individual angles, but they both surprised me with their approach. Max made one angle, then just pivoted it to create different degrees. Madeline took the right brain approach and created the structure on the right, then laid it in her notebook and traced the different angles it creates. I love their creative problem solving!

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