Activity

The students work in pairs to describe the shape to each other. They are given the pictures of the
shapes and each students takes it in turns to describe a shape to the other. The other student draws
a picture of what they think the shape looks like based on the information given.

An extension on this is for the students to attempt to do this using a language that only one of the
pair knows. It would be up to the students to use their intuition and skill to figure out what the
words mean. If the students doesn’t draw the shape correctly they have to start again until they
draw it reasonably close.

The mathematical benefit is not only the construction of shapes and estimation of distances (go 1cm
left), it is also the analytical skill of trial and error combined with uses of memory.

A further extension is to translate the shapes on a grid and to ask the students how they might
describe that translation using whatever terminology they are aware of. If this proves successful
then the same idea of using another language can be brought in. The students can be given the
shapes translated from the origin and, in pairs, the students take it in turn to describe the
translation. This could also be used as the opposite. The students describe a translation and another
has to draw what the shape would appear as after the translation.

Activity sheet 1.