Math: Transformations

(Actually written March 19, 2012)

I could see the students in suspense since they arrived at school last Friday. It was report card day as well as a 1/2 day. One girl even came to school crying. Since I had a busy week, I did not have a very detailed lesson planned for our lesson on transformations.

As I was laying in bed Thursday night, a brilliant thought came to my head (which is the worst time to think about school!). I should have them create mirrored images for reflections and do a pivot such as in basketball for a rotation. That meant I had to think of a movement related to translations.

During our lesson, I used this format for each transformation: first introduced the three terms, showed them on the board with the letter "R," then had them to the movement. I demonstrated reflections by pulling the twins in my class to the front and moving their extremities so they mirrored each other. Then I had groups of students do the same thing. We then did rotations, which they caught on to quickly. I left translations for last. For translations, I had them stand up by their desk and slide to the left and then to the right. All of a sudden, the song "Cupid Shuffle" came into my head. I started singing, "to the left, to the left, to the right, to the right..." and the kids followed. Brilliant! It was time for recess, so I dismissed them and quickly found a YouTube video of the Cupid Shuffle. After recess I showed them and we did the dance together, calling out translations and rotations.

Though I should have had this planned before hand, it turned out to be a good lesson where I met those who learn kinesthetically. I think I also took many students' minds off of the report cards.