Mathematics 

Student Engagement in Maths is an area we have been working on as a school in Numeracy for the past two years. Today we wanted to share with you a Year 5 Maths task that was completed that engaged in Shape.

Students used a square piece of paper and cut it in half diagonally which created two triangles. The purpose of the lesson was to investigate how many different shapes can be made by joining triangles together following a particular rule.

The rule was: The two triangles can only be joined along sides of equal length. Each student then created a new shape by doing this with their own triangles, by following the rule. One of the main parts of the lesson was to name the shapes that they created using their properties eg. A triangle is called this because it is a closed shape with three straight sides. 

The main part of the task was to sit beside a partner who had different coloured triangles to create a new shape with their four triangles. They then created their shape and thought about what it would be called based on its properties. Activity taken from Engaging Maths: 25 favorite Lessons by Doug Clarke

Susan Mitchell and Mel Sanderson.