Flat figures construction

As we have said previously, children's learning become richer if they can see, touch and experiment with the different materials. In this section, we are going to talk about the construction of flat figures because we consider that it is better to practise with them firstly, before starting to learn the volume and the geometric bodies. 

In this activity that I'm going to suggest, students will learn independently or in groups, but it is a perfect way to encourage student's autonomy and creativity. The teacher can help each student in a more personal way, especially those who have more difficulties in the subject. The aim of this activity is that students learn the properties and geometric concepts through the construction and deconstruction of flat figures. But, how are we going to do that? It is really easy. 

We are going to prepare different geometric figures with any material (wood, plastic, etc.). In our case, we will use "goma-eva" because it is an easy material to use, cut and manipulate. So, we just need these figures (triangles, rhombuses, trapezoids, squares...). With this material, the teacher can suggest several proposals. 

Firstly, we can let our students manipulate freely the material in order to have the first contact with it and build some figures. Then, a good idea to continue using it can be trough different sheets with instructions that students will have to follow. For instance: "you have to build a triangle using 1 triangle and 1 trapezoid" (see the picture). In this example, the students will perceive the concepts of visual perception and increase because they will see that the new triangle is bigger than the first one. In other words, the first triangle is integrated into the new one. 

We can build lots of figures with these pieces, as we have found in other examples on the Internet: 

The next step with this material can be the composition of objects, animals, etc. using some templates, as it is represented in this picture. The end of the activity will depend on the creativity of our students and the teacher!