Play Dough Geometry

Learning math with play dough geometry is so much fun! Middle and high school students like to play, too, and this series of lessons gives them a great, hands-on overview of beginning geometry.

Concrete learning (actually touching, building, and manipulating things) is so important to solidify a real understanding of otherwise abstract concepts. Play dough is a perfect tool for concrete learning for all ages!

Play Dough Geometry

Target Age Range: 5th-9th

Skills Covered: lines, line segments, rays, angles, intersections, congruent shapes, vertices, faces

I love Pinterest!  On my living math board, I recently pinned a post with a link to FREE printable playdough geometry lessons.  We have already worked our way through the first five or six lessons and I’m loving the concrete understanding they are providing.  I will say the lessons could use some more teacher notes.  It’s pretty much assumed the teacher knows geometry and the terms relating to it.  At this point, I haven’t run into any problems leading my children through the lessons…yet.

Essentially, the lessons ask your children to create geometric models using playdough.  The models are then drawn onto the printable recording sheets where your child names points, lines, angles, etc. and answers questions or fills in charts.

Playdough geometry makes a great starter course before diving into a tough geometry text.  The individual lessons are also great to use for some concrete, hands-on learning when introducing a new concept in geometry.

Another great way to add more dimension to learning is through books!

 

Need a living math “how-to” guide? You might like Loving Living Math!