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subject to review, alteration or abandonment in classroom practice.
Anyone is welcome to use this stuff, but copyright remains with
Thor May. Feedback, positive or negative, is very welcome.ESL materials & ideas developed in Korea
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Numeracy - Names of Geometric Shapes
Note:
The names of geometric shapes are not only for mathematicians! They are also the stuff of everyday description. It is true however that some individuals are much more oriented to spatial thinking than others; (it is evidently more characteristic of males than females, and more for mechanics than language teachers). Those who do think spatially (I do!) will use these words quite a lot. Also, some occupations require them frequently.
Presentation:
a) Each period for several lessons, draw a number of geometric shapes on the board
b) Prompt students to give you the English names; invite them to give you the Korean name too; (exchange is the best teaching method for most things!)
c) Give the English name when it is not known
d) Explain the notion of two dimensional and three dimensional (solids)
e) Each subsequent lesson give a mini-test on the shapes learned previously
f) Prompt students to give you the name of an object which has each respective geometric shape (e.g. a spring for a helix); Draw the object. This is an excellent mnemonic. A competition game can be built around this object to shape naming.
Common Geometric Shapes
square, cube, rectangle, rectangular prism, circle, sphere,
triangle, pyramid, diamond (rhomboid) , pentagon, hexagon,
octagon, polygon, parallelogram, trapezium, cone, cylinder,
spiral, helix, oval (ellipse), mushroom shaped, kidney shaped,
egg shaped, bulb shaped ...
"Geometric Shapes - Names" copyrighted to Thor May 2001; all rights reservedback to barebones index