The Wonderful World of Geometry

I think Geometry can start at a very young age and that is just by learning shapes. The world has so many fascinating shapes and once children see those geometric shapes it opens up a whole new world. When working with children in the preschool, I found that they loved finding shapes in their classroom and outside in the playground. For example, they get to see and touch everyday shapes like, blocks, party hats, stop signs, balls, clocks,etc. For some students when they discovered a "Shape" they would get so excited, it was as if they discovered "Gold"!

When children get older, they can learn about "patterns" and that numbers and objects repeat in predictable ways. Also, in the third grade they get to draw and cut out patterns to see the relationships. I think manipulatives to teach geometry, especially in the early years is important. Instead of looking at a book and learning a shape from a page in the books, kids can touch and see the shape. When subbing for the third grade teacher, the students had to cut out their shapes and then colored the shapes when they halved them into sections. This cutout was used to solve their math geometry problems. This helped all learners, from struggling to high achievers, which is why manipulatives is so important.

I think that geometry is so important for students to learn and understand for their future because there are times when we need to know how to figure out how much carpet we need for our floor or proportionally what size furniture pieces will fit in our living room and the list could go on. Everyone, will have a chance to build or create at some time in their life and will need to understand geometry. However, I think we should teach geometry so students learn it well. In our country, we try to teach so many new concepts and formulas that students have a hard time remembering it the next year. As we have learned it's better to "dig deep" than only scratch surface!!