[MrsCrystal]

What activities/lessons do you have to help kids with the geometry standards (types of quadrilaterals, classifying triangles, etc.)? There's so much terminology that I know my 5th graders struggled with all the different definitions (rhombus vs. parallelogram vs. square....), and I'm sure 3rd will be the same. Any ideas would be great!

i always do a handson activity at the end, its math art....they divide a big sheet of construction paper into square sections and have them cut out of colored paper various things and show them and label them...such as one thing will be a circle with a radius and diameter(all done in colored paper) and the labeled...you can tell them what they have to have in each box.....heres some suggestions: right triangle, isosceles triangle, square, rectangle, an acute angle, and etc....its also a good idea to have a model of the activity before u have kids do it......i do it at the end of the unit every year. i also do hand/arm motions for everything(kinesthetic)...i make up hand motions for many things...example acute angle is an allgiator mouth chomping....intersecting lines are two arms in shape of an X....you can perpindicular with your arms, line with arms, obtuse angle with arms, right angle with arms(one arm past head in straight line by ear and other arm stretched out straight shoulder heigth)...etc....review pretty regularly...say name of shape kids must repeat and show arm position....later on you just say "show me parallel" and they are to do it..you can have students come up and lead the exercises...etc....kids really enjoy it and they remember....i also make up poems/chants

for classifying triangles, they need to look at the angles of the triangles, so I have students look at pattern blocks(the angles of them in the corners) to introduce this....i also make helpful posters/charts as visual aids......

a fun thing to do is gumball and toothpick geometry project to make a 3dshape, such as prism or pyramid

pictures with pattern block shapes(stickers or cut out paper in pattern block shapes)

[jjwires]

Marilyn Burns has a terrific book written for 3rd grade. I can't remember the exact title, but geometry is in the title. Her lessons are so great!
Have you tried mathwire?

[eliza4one]

We do pencil exercises. We dig out 2 pencils and 'exercise' them. I call out various terms (perpendicular, parallel, right angle, etc.) and they
form the term I call out. They love it. I also let them come up and be the leader.

We also go on scavenger hunts around the school. It is amazing how many terms they can find by looking at the ceiling, windows, doors, tables, etc.

3rd grade isn't near as in depth as 5th grade. Mine have always done really well w/the terms.

[WESEM]

My class uses twist ties and straws to build the shapes and then compare and contrast them.