Explain this
Geometry Games
How the publisher describes it:
“Setting up games in the classroom can be time consuming in terms of preparation but with this collection photocopiable geometry games much of the preparation is already done. By playing games pupils can be introduced to new, and sometimes quite hard, concepts in ways that are fun and thought provoking.”
Review by Jenny Murray
In brief:
This book is a valuable resource, and teachers of upper primary or secondary classes would be well advised to get it.
“Varied both in geometric content and in variety of games”
I have played many of Gill Hatch’s games at Conferences, and found them both and stimulating and challenging. The games in this book are varied both in geometric content and in variety of games. There are four sections in the book, angles, triangles, quadrilaterals and polygons, and at least 15 different types of game.
I played ‘I like Polygons’ with a Year 5 and 6 Class. It is a formula I have used before with numbers, but this version was new to me. Essentially the game is one where the teacher chooses a property and likes the shapes that follow the rule and hates the shapes that do not. The class then tries to discover the property the teacher has chosen by asking questions like: “Do you like polygon number 26?” I felt that that, not only was the game situation relaxed and enjoyable, but that a great deal of learning was going on. There are two other ‘I like ...’ games in the book.
I tried out two other games with a group from the same class. The first, from the ‘Angles’ section, was played with the ‘Angles cards’. To start with, the group simply put the cards into pairs with the same sized angle. Then they played a memory game. This needs a small group to be satisfactory.
They next game I tried was ‘Polygon Happy Families’. This went down well too. But there was a problem. One shape give as a Nonagon had in fact 10 sides. A rather stupid editorial error.
This leads me to other criticisms, not of the content which is great, but of the production of the book. When you first look at it, it is coloured in an attractive orange, as well as black and white. However, this causes problems. It is a photocopiable resource, but the orange looks a dirty grey when photocopied. I tried it on coloured card, but that looked even worse! Coloured photocopies are expensive, if available. One game I scanned into my computer, and printed out. That looked good. It’s a pity it also needed one shape redrawing!
The shapes for the ‘I like ...’ games are very small. They are difficult to enlarge to more than A3 size, so for a whole class, they either have to be redrawn or copied for each group in the class, or used with an overhead projector.
Despite these criticisms, this book is a valuable resource, and teachers of upper primary or secondary classes would be well advised to get it.
