Now onto an idea you can do with graph paper or a geoboard--I did mine with graph paper so I could color it : )
- Draw a funny (composite) shape with only straight lines connecting at the graph paper intersections.
- You can tell students that Composite shapes are just shapes with hidden shapes inside them.
- The next thing to do with a pencil or pen is to split it up into shapes the child can identify.
- Color them in and see what it is made of. (If your children are interested in learning about area or if you want to teach that, it would go well here. The area of the squares on the left are not equal. One square is one cube, while the other square is equal to four cubes. It should be easy for kids to understand that the little triangles are equal to half a cube.)
- You can try to see how few times you can split it and still make recognizable shapes. Here, there are only three and two line splits!
- If you wanted, to you could continue drawing the same shape to see all the variations you can do.
- Try making your own shapes and see what you can come up with...
Thanks for visiting! Feel free to link up your math post below
