Sidewalk Capers
Geometry/Spatial Sense
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Objective
Students will explore spatial relationships by determining the area of various shapes
and creating tessellation patterns.
Overview of the Lesson
Students use a variety of manipulatives in this lesson to explore spatial
relationships of squares and their transformations. They create a square with 36
square tiles and determine that by sliding several of the pieces both vertically and
horizontally, they form an irregular shape that can be tessellated. Students are
given a variety of curved shapes and encouraged to use tape and scissors to
reconfigure their shape back into a square. Students are surprised to learn that all of
the different shapes have the same area. Given a variety of measurement tools,
students are asked to estimate the number of squares tiles (24" x 24”) needed to cover
an assigned section of the school's sidewalk. Finally, they create a pattern from the
square and tessellate it on the sidewalk using chalk.
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