Materials for the lesson

Phase 1. Chairs for each student. Paper and pen for each row. Printed (A4-laminated) pictures of different geometric shapes such as circle, oval, crescent, triangle, hexagon, kite, octagon, cross, and so on.

Layout of the classroom

Phase 1.  4 rows with chairs.

Phase 2. Students can use the whole classroom, the chairs and the desks for their group.

Phase 3. The classroom setting is empty to move freely. Or in the schoolyard if the weather is good.

Phase 1

The teacher divides the class into 4 groups. Each group makes a row with their chairs one behind each other. They do not see the others’ face. There are four rows like that. Last student in each row gets a geometric shape.

Firstly, they mimic the same shape down the row one after the other. The first person in the row writes down the name of the shape or draws it on the paper.

Secondly, they draw the shape on the back of the student in the same row with their finger. First student in each row has pen and paper to draw the final shape on the paper.

The group who has more correct drawings on the paper wins the game.

Phase 2

The students play the game ‘OPEN and CLOSE’. These 4 groups continue to work together. Each group gets 3 geometric shapes. They need to create an object or a story with the help of these three shapes. Each group should show their object and story with a specific number of still images. Three is a good number as they need to remember them all.

When each group decides their object/story they work for each image and practice to move from first image to last one. When they are ready the teacher takes responsibility for saying ‘OPEN’ and ‘CLOSE’.

The audience close their eyes while the group gets into position. When the group has its first image ready, the teacher says ‘OPEN’. The audience open their eyes for a few moments and look carefully at the scene. When they have had time to take everything in, the teacher says, ‘CLOSE’ and the audience close their eyes again. The group moves quickly and quietly into the second position and then the audience are asked to open their eyes. The process is repeated until all the images have been shown.

The teacher asks to whole group later on about the geometric shapes, which have been used in the objects and stories.

Phase 3

The teacher lets the students walk in the class and lets them discover different shapes in the classroom while they are walking. All students walk outside and look around the schoolyard to find different shapes.

When they come back to the classroom they write downs all shapes that have different geometric shapes in it. The teacher writes all shapes on the whiteboard to collect all of them together.

Phase 4

The teacher asks the students to find out objects, which has geometric shapes in their daily life when they go home.