4 Fun, Engaging Activities for your Geometry Unit
I feel like Geometry is one of those units that I have a love-hate relationship with. Anyone else? Classifying shapes can be very difficult for some students. But, at the same time, there are so many fun, hands-on activities that you can do to practice these skills. Also, if your curriculum is set up anything like mine, geometry is probably one of your last units and you are doing all you can to keep your kiddos engaged!
Here are a few of my favorite geometry activities + resources….
Quadrilateral Club Poster + Flipbook
Classifying Quadrilaterals. Y’all. This is tough stuff. THIS POSTER is a MUST HAVE in my classroom during our geometry unit! I really believe that it helps students visually see the hierarchy of quadrilaterals and how they can fit into multiple categories. I also have a QUADRILATERAL FLIP BOOK *freebie* that we complete at the beginning of the unit. This allows students to define the different quadrilaterals and draw examples of them. This flip book is resource my students continuously use throughout our whole unit to help them classify quadrilaterals.
Geometry Headbands
Once my students have a better grasp on quadrilaterals, I love to play Geometry Headbands! Students get a shape card and ask yes/no questions to their partner or the class to try to figure out what their shape is. If you’re looking for cards to use, CLICK HERE to get a copy of the set I use. Once you make a copy of them, you can add more shapes if needed.
Just know, the first few rounds do typically require A LOT of scaffolding! My students used anchor charts to help them and we X’ed off shapes as we eliminated them.
What Does the Shape Say?
When I had my students, do this craft, I was AMAZED at what they came up with! Each student picked a different shape, then turned it into a picture. In the speech bubble, they wrote about the shapes attributes. This was a quick and easy craft, but I loved that it allowed my students to be creative and practice describing shapes.
If you want to give it a try, this is another FREEBIE in my TpT shop! I’d LOVE to see your students creations!
Geostix
Geostix are GREAT for your geometry unit and there are so many different things that you could use them for! Here are 2 of my favorites…
One thing that you could do with Geostix is to have your students create specific shapes. Either the teacher could call out a shape or a classmate, then the students would make it using their sticks. Afterwards, students can discuss similarities and differences between the shapes that were created.
Another things I LOVE to do with Geostix is a “gallery walk”. I have each student create a shape with their sticks and lay them out around the classroom. Then, students walk form shape to shape with a recording sheet where they draw the shape, name the shape, and describe its attributes. It’s a great way to practice, but also give students ownership during the lesson!
If you don’t have Geostix, you could always use pipe cleaners or popsicle sticks instead!
While geometry is a tough unit for our students to grasp, there are many engaging activities that you can incorporate into your lessons! If you try out one of the activities I mentioned, I’d love to hear how it goes!
