Hands on Geometry FREEBIES!!!

 I have been a little bogged down with getting my class ready to head to spring break!! 2 more days until the alarm clock gets turned off and the Energizer bunny takes a little siesta.  I'm hoping the internal alarm clock turns itself off, too, but I know I won't be that lucky!!  My students are loving our new Selfies wall and invite me over to take a pic to add to our wall.  I absolutely adore them, but I am sooooo ready for a few days to catch up on energy, ideas, and sleep!!

I have so many things on my to blog about list that I sometimes get overwhelmed! We have been really enjoying some fantastic fun lessons my student teacher has brought to us for Plane and Solid Figures as well as finishing Keynote presentations on Great White Sharks and exploring our Matter science unit. Not to mention we read an amazingggg book that I will be dedicating my next blog to.. you won't want to miss it, double pinky swear promise ya won't!! 

I ran across Jivey's blog today for Workshop Wednesday and was thrilllllled it was focusing on GEOMETRY!!!

My student teacher started us off with reviewing angle types with this fun FREE Geometry Star activity from Virtually Montessori. Students had to create angles from points that they labeled on their paper. Great review of types of angles and their measurements. 

 He went on to teach quadrilaterals with notes in our interactive notebook followed up by students creating quadrilaterals using old fashioned geoboards and rubber bands.  We had hoped to get the Geoboard app downloaded by our IT department for my 1:1 ipad classroom, but it wasn't possible. I am soooo thankful it didn't work out because the students had 2 days of engaged, hands on learning where they truly whined we had to stop!! 5th graders loved them!! We had team competitions where a shape was called out and the team had to help make it. Students later were given a characteristic of a quadrilateral and had to make the shape just from their traits.  Fun was had by everyone!


Day 3 he sent the students off to do a Plane Figure and Angle Hunt on the playground.   Working with a partner, they had to find and record on their iPads 10 different geometric shapes and then create a Keynote explaining what each picture was and the characteristics that made it that particular shape. Here he is recording the students' palpable excitement as they perused every nook and cranny of the playground in search of shapes.  They were so resourceful that if they couldn't find a shape on the list that they needed, they created it! He is AMAZING!! My students and I are truly blessed to have him.  He kept them engaged all week long! 

He even created center rotations for the students to practice their skills.  Students folded a dog origami, explored tangrams using Laura Candler's freebie, measured angles, and drew Zombies by Christine Cadalzo with geometric shapes. He is a true teacher, already using TeachersPayTeachers for engaging activities.

The second week he introduced Solid Figures with yet another engaging lesson using toothpicks and play-dough. He had students take notes on prisms versus pyramids and reviewed faces, vertices, and edges.  Then provided a list of the shapes and students went to town creating them and recording the number of faces, edges, and vertices they saw.

My students have had a thrilling 2 weeks in geometry! We will be finishing up this week and I can't wait to see what he has in store for us! We reviewed skills in quick center rotations this week, too, to help prepare us for the Performance Task Assessment!! They will rock it! 

They loved Kristin Kennedy's free QR Code Scavenger Hunt and Fun For Learning's Angle Treasure Hunt.