Week 8

Shape (Part 1)

This week’s lesson started off with classifying the 2D shapes (quadrilaterals). As we all have learnt, a trapezium, rhombus, rectangle and kite are all quadrilaterals. Some of them (e.g. rectangle and rhombus) can be classified in many categories under quadrilaterals. A rectangle for example is also known as a ‘square’ and a ‘paralellogram’ and can be classified as a trapezium because it has two pairs of parallel sides. Hence it is learned that any shapes should be classified according to its attributes/properties for example the number of sides it has. If shapes are classified by labeling, it will certainly confuse the students.

One of the activities that could be done to introduce young learners to 2D shapes is to get them each to cut out various shapes from a piece of paper and then sort the shapes according to its attributes/properties. Then have students to describe how they sort the shapes.

Have the students to sort the shapes and ask them how they would sort it.

Instead of cutting shapes out of papers, the teacher could also get the students to draw 2D shapes that they could find in their surroundings and then sort the shapes according to its attributes.

Further discussion about the shapes created by the students could be held in order to get students to recognize and notice the critical attributes of each shape. Question like ‘tell me more about the shape’ could be asked to stimulate students’ critical thinking.

Reflection

While discussing about the properties of quadrilaterals, we have come to realization that the US definition of a 'trapezium' is different from other countries. This might cause learners, especially the young ones confusion. The issue raised was 'could we have one standard definition of a trapezium?'.

*If we can have the standard measurement units for all over the world, why not?*