Rich Learning Tasks

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Questions to facilitate the learning

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Were you able to put the shapes together to make one big shape or did you only create designs made

up of separate pieces?

•

When all four shapes were put together into one shape, how many sides did that shape have? Was there

more than one possible number of sides?

•

Choose one of the designs you created. Was it more green or more blue? Why?

•

Could you have made the same shapes or designs you did with only green shapes? How many would you

have needed?

•

Could you have made the same shapes you did with only blue shapes? If yes, how many blue shapes

would you have needed?

Scaffolding the learning

•

What can you make if you put only the triangles together?

•

What can you make if you just put together one blue and one green shape?

•

How would your shape change if you move one of the triangles to a different spot?

Extending the learning

Students might change the number of shapes they use in their pictures or they might try to make specific

shapes, e.g. a hexagon or a parallelogram.

What’s the point of this task?

Using this task, students have an opportunity to see how shapes can be composed to create other shapes.

They also start to recognise the effect of orientation on their perception of shapes. For example, they

will see that a shape does not change its name just because it looks different; a triangle does not have

to have a flat base to still be a triangle. Some of the questions suggested below also lead students to

compare area and think proportionally.

Blue and Green Shapes

Geometry