Great Geoboard Activities for Guided Math Groups

Posted on November 20, 2010. Filed under: Guided math, Manipulatives, virtual manipulatives | Tags: , , , |


Geoboards are a great manipulative.  They come in a square frame and a circle frame. You can either buy them or make your own.    You use them with rubberbands/geobands.  Always discuss the proper use of rubber bands and have consequences for folks who use them inappropriately. Be sure to give the students free exploration time before you give an assignment (as with any manipulative).  Also be sure to have the students transfer designs back and forth between the actual geoboards (concrete level activities) and the dot paper geoboards (pictorial level activities). You can use geoboard to explore many different geometry concepts such as classify polygons, estimate and calculate the area and perimeter of a polygon, construct line segments and endpoints, draw congruent figures, explore angles and do coordinate grid work. Below I have listed a couple of great links to geoboard activities.

Making Shapes

  • Use your geoboard to make different shapes: polygon, quadrilateral, triangle, square, rectangle, pentagon, hexagon and an octagon.
  • Use interactive geoboards to explore geometric shapes, describe their properties and develop spatial sense. http://standards.nctm.org/document/eexamples/chap4/4.2/

Exploring Symmetry and Congruence

http://www.crowley.k12.tx.us/curriculum_and_instruction/Math/5TH/data_files/TT_Activities/geoboardactivities.pdf

http://images.pcmac.org/Uploads/OnslowCounty/OnslowCounty/Departments/DocumentsCategories/Documents/Geoboard%20Challenge%20-%204th.pdf

Exploring Area and Perimeter

http://www.mathplayground.com/geoboard.html

http://education.ti.com/calculators/downloads/US/Activities/Detail?id=6690

National Library of Virtual Manipulative Activities

(grades prek-2) http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_277_g_1_t_3.html?open=activities

(grades 3-5) http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_172_g_2_t_3.html?open=activities

(grades 6-8) http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_282_g_3_t_3.html?open=activities

(making 3-d shapes) http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_129_g_1_t_3.html?open=activities

(circular geoboard grades 3-5) http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_127_g_2_t_3.html?open=activities

(circular geoboard grades 6-8) http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_284_g_3_t_3.html?open=activities

(coordinate grid activities 3-5)

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_166_g_2_t_3.html?open=activities

(coordinate grid activities 6-8) http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_303_g_3_t_3.html?open=activities

Many More Geoboard Activities

http://nrich.maths.org/2883

http://www.lessonresearch.net/AreaGeoboard_4thgrade.pdf

http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/RR/database/RR.09.98/loewen2.3.html (angles, perimeter and area)

http://www.rapides.k12.la.us/connectedmath/geo-math.htm

http://homepage.mac.com/efithian/Geometry/Activity-03.html

http://mathforum.org/trscavo/geoboards/geobd6.html

http://www.jstor.org/stable/30214167

http://www.jamesrahn.com/Geometry/pages/geoboard_activities.htm

(plotting coordinate grids)  http://www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/Mathematics/Geometry/GEO0204.html

http://www.cut-the-knot.org/Curriculum/Geometry/Geoboard.shtml

*(Student Activity Sheet) http://www.mathinscience.info/public/cover_up/geoboard_activities.pdf

Blackline Masters of Geoboards

(circular geoboard) http://people.morehead-st.edu/fs/m.schack/circle_geo.pdf

(square geoboard) http://eclectichomeschool.org/pdf/10x10dot.pdf

(many paper geoboards) http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/galleries/math/geoboards.php

http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=6676&part=index

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/printables/scottforesman/Math_3_TTT_7.pdf

Exploring Numbers

(scroll down to bottom of page to see picture of center) http://www.marcias-lesson-links.com/MathTubs.html

Resources

*(Teacher story of introducing geoboards)  http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3671

http://www.etacuisenaire.com/catalog/department?deptId=GEOBOARDS&pageType=1&parentId=MATH

http://astore.amazon.com/drnisgumabl-20?_encoding=UTF8&node=17

(an academic article) http://www.jstor.org/stable/30213962

*(a few ideas to make your own geoboard)

http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2010/08/diy-geoboard.html

http://www.education.com/activity/article/geoboard/

http://www.feelslikehomeblog.com/2010/02/how-to-make-a-geoboard/

http://engagingtoddleractivities.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/homemade-geoboard/

Geoboard Videos

(building it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEw61i1veOg

(using it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikaSgNDnrv0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFucbbgLGZQ&playnext=1&list=PL351EA69AAEE764C3&index=18

 

Happy Mathing,

Dr. Nicki

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5 Responses to “Great Geoboard Activities for Guided Math Groups”

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Hi Dr. Nicki,
I can’t imagine not using geoboards in a math classroom! The videos were very informative and non-math teacher-friendly. Where can I get the 10 by 10 geoboards? I don’t have any at my school. The Library of Virtural Manipulatives makes the geoboard come alive for the students. Haven’t read through all the resources yet, so thanks in advance.

Lisa
November 21, 2010

Reply

Hi,
I listed several resources at the bottom of the post.

Dr. Nicki

drnickinewton
November 23, 2010

Reply

Pleace let us know , when you are going to make some new articles. You are awesome communicator.

Ngoc Reasinger
November 27, 2010

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December 15, 2010

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