Teachery Things: Transformation Stations

This last week I did a three day long lesson on transformations, which included four different stations for kiddos to explore hands on.

Things that worked:
The reflection station was a hit. The kids got super creative and were really excited to paint in math class.
The rotation station also worked well with the instructions clear enough for anyone who actually read them to completely follow along. (The ones who didn’t read the instructions were of course lost.)
The transformation series game Shape Mods was a big hit. Most kids were super into it, and though some were really frustrated at first, once they figured out the controls and some strategies, they started moving through levels quickly. Some were devastated when it was time to switch stations.

Things I would change:
I would make my own translation maze with the dot pictured on it’s starting point. Too many kids were asking, “Where do I start?” The directions on the worksheet weren’t great.

I need to create a real file with the rotation stations rectangles further away from the paper’s borders. I thought I’d make it faster for the kids by drawing the cut outs along the edges, but the copier cut off one side a bit, making those shapes useless or frustrating the kids who accidentally used them, since they no longer matched up.

Overall:
This lesson was chaotic and fun and the kids had a good time. On one of the days (it took two and a half days to get everyone through every station with sufficient time) I had my yearly observation and my principal loved it. She went around taking pictures of the kids working on her iPad. When she left, one of my girls said, “Hey, she takes pictures of us just like you do!” Yes, children. I’m not the only weirdo who likes taking pictures of you guys while you’re being all cutesy and learning stuff.