CIRCLES AND TRIANGLES AND SQUARES, OH MY!

When I first saw that geometry was a common core standard starting in 1st grade, I immediately thought of the geometry I took sophomore year of high school and panicked...not my strongest subject. Obviously, I quickly realized they meant basic shapes and was relieved- then I did some digging...there's no way they're just learning to recognize a triangle in the 2nd grade, right?
  • Recognize and draw shapes having specified attributes, such as a given number of angles or a given number of equal faces. Identify triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, and cubes.
  • Partition a rectangle into rows and columns of same-size squares and count to find the total number of them.
  • Partition circles and rectangles into two, three, or four equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, thirds, half of, a third of, etc., and describe the whole as two halves, three thirds, four fourths. Recognize that equal shares of identical wholes need not have the same shape.
Ahhhhhh, this makes much more sense. Basically, students are learning about the different numbers of angles, sides, and faces that make a shape, well, a shape! They're also working to be able to divide a rectangle into equal-sized rows and columns of boxes...hm. Sounds like they're building a foundation for understanding area. Finally, students are learning to partition shapes into equal shares and describing the whole as a total number of pieces. Again, I feel another standard forming...fractions anyone?

I found some fun worksheets that help students practice these skills and allow them to strengthen their understanding of these basic concepts before building on to more complex ideas.

printable geometry worksheets identify 2d shapes 2 https://science-lakes.com/images/worksheet-on-shapes-for-grade-2/worksheet-on-shapes-for-grade-2-16.jpg


Feeling like I'm in good shape (ha ha) for my next geometry lesson and filled with lots of ideas for my next blog post that build off of these concepts... stay tuned!

Comments

  1. TanishaFebruary 21, 2019 at 5:09 PM

    Nice post ! I think you've made a very strong point, students should be able to understand these basic concepts before moving onto more complex math problems because they all tie in together. The understanding of math I think starts young and we'll greatly help the teachers in the later grades if we can get students to understand the simple concepts. Now I know when I teach my students shapes, it's for a deeper meaning than just coloring in the shape and determining how many sides!

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