29/05_Teaching solid geometry

This post is going to have two parts. In first place, we are going to consider the teacher’s point of view by reviewing a series of four videos that shows how can three-dimensional shapes can be learnt. The second part is going to focus on material which is directly targeted for children, that can be quite useful for them. 

Solid geometry. Teacher’s scope

First lesson: Introducing 3-D shapes

(1) Introducing 3-D shapes in second grade. Source: Peace and Happiness Foundation

I find very interesting how well organised are these videos. Very small amount of content but well learnt. In the first video they first recap what they already know (2-D shapes) and share the knowledge with others, comparing 2-D shapes they know with those new-brand 3-D shapes that the teacher is showing to them now. They repeat the concept a lot, so that the students really learn the words related (they look like quite motivated about repeating it endlessly!). After this it comes a visual presentations where they work again the same ideas, contrasting concepts such like “flat” and “volume”, “corner” (they do it through practise, pointing to the corners). This seems to me a seamless combination of student talking time - teaching talking time, or to put in other words, student practise time - teacher teaching time. I also like that ALL students have practise time. At the third part of the lesson, they do a bit of stretching (at the beginning they did meditation), and they do worksheets, with the aid of the teacher.

Second lesson: Naming and describing 3-D shapes

(2) Naming and describing 3-D shapes in second grade. Source: Peace and Happiness Foundation

The class has always a similar structure, in a class of 45 minutes:

            (a) Meditation, 5’

(b) Reviewing concepts already seen

(c) STT – TTT / Student practise time (all students participate) - Teacher teaching time (with visual presentation)

(d) Stretching for 2’ at the minute 30

(e) Worksheets with teacher assistance (so far, the lesson has been mainly orally, the last 15 minutes they are writing)

As coherent as it could be, the knowledge is progressive in difficulty, and so is the practise the students do. The activities proposed are varied, working all concepts previously seen, so that it is really difficult to get them lost in the learning process. 

They review, in the whiteboard, corners, analysing whether a corner has corner or not; painting faces… While some students are on the whiteboard, other are sitting, but listening to the teacher and students’ interventions. After that time, they start to see objects that in real life has those forms… to finish the class completing a worksheet chart with:

	Faces	Corners	Edges
Sphere
Pyramid
Cylinder
Cube
Cone
Cuboid

To do this chart, she previously does it with the students orally, so that they can do it on their own later. We tend to put our students in evaluation mode too soon, when the idea is not to check, but more to practise. By doing it orally first, it is a way to prepare and practise. Then, later, it is more about remembering. 

Third lesson: Building 3-D shapes

(3) Building 3-D shapes in second grade. Source: Peace and Happiness Foundation

After two lessons practising those ideas, the teacher expects them to remember some the concepts by heart. She starts the lesson asking them to name some of the 3-D shapes learned. When seeing those videos and comparing how teachers in Spain do their professional activity, I can’t but think that the problem is not about our activities, but a logical, connected, sequenced, series of concepts, where the student has more opportunities to practise and repeat ideas. In this lesson they are constructing what she calls ‘3-D models’, specifically, a cube and a cone. Also, She is having them the opportunity to choose which models they are going to paint, cut and stick with adhesive tape. As the lesson is going to be mainly practise, she does the stretch just before her explanation and the follow-up practise. 

Fourth lesson: Comparing shapes and 3-D shapes

 

(4) Comparing shapes and 3-D shapes in second grade. Source: Peace and Happiness Foundation

The last video of the series compares shapes (2-D shapes) with 3-D shapes (things that we can pick up) and she starts giving examples more difficult because they aren’t closed, like a cup or a desk. Again there is a lot of practise, it is touched by all the students. ‘A cuboid is like a cube but stretched long’… They are revising the presentation. They continue the lesson by asking the students ‘which figure are they able to draw’, and they go for it. They do a worksheet, from my opinion more advance and freer, where they have to think by themselves and they are working the linguistic competence. 

Also, in this amazing channel (with not enough recognition) we can find a series of videos for third year, where volume and capacity and measure of volume is introduced. Very interesting indeed. 

For me as a teacher it is highly interesting to observe how other teachers do their professional activity. But also, we can see it from a broader perspective. These ICTs resources are important because they are free to use, and accessible for people and places that don’t have access for a proper education. It can be a flipped classroom resource, just like Khan academy platform is. 

However, there are videos more specifically designed for students, and I would like to present them too.

Solid geometry. Students’ scope:

How to Describe 3D Shapes

In this video, all the explanation and the description are a fantastic material for kids of all ages, the visuals are very well chosen.

Learning about Faces, Edges, and Vertices - Three Dimensional Figures

            This very funny teacher (or father?) is showing us physically and in a familiar set the different concepts in 3-D shapes. 

This is the last of the ten posts I have created for the subject of Didactic of Geometry at the Primary Teaching Degree at the University of Málaga. This means that unfortunately I will no longer update this blog from now on (who knows what might happen in life, future is always uncertain).

Bye and lots of love,

Elena 😊

References

ClicView [Screen name]. (2017, April 3). How to Describe 3D Shapes [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-QwWFkz5hw

 

Lampofilm [Screen name]. (2014, March 31). Learning about Faces, Edges, and Vertices - Three Dimensional Figures [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPrVAT_x1f4

 

Peace and Happiness Foundation. (n.). Home [YouTube Channel]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQp-zPzaKvxRR0skA15hObQ