Mini Lesson: Transformations in Geometry

I am excited to share one of my first mini lessons with you!  This is an on going series and I'll be covering reading and math.  In each mini lesson, you'll typically find a link or two to another blogger and free worksheets or references from Teachers Pay Teachers. 

Mini Lesson:  Transformations in Geometry

This mini lesson really would be stretched out over two to three sessions with your tutoring student.  If you only see your student once a week, then this mini lesson may not be for you.  Begin with some manipulative work by making moving pieces on the coordinate plane.  Jen Runde from Runde's Room does a fantastic math journal  about this. 

Practice Slide:

Draw out a shape on some cardstock or a file folder (for durability). Mark the vertices with letters.  I used my dirt cheap graphing board.  I marked all four quadrants.  Now you can practice!  Pull out a deck of playing cards.  Remove the Kings, Queens, Jacks, 10, 9, 8, 7, and 6.  Ace will be the same as one.  Basically, numbers 1-5.  Red will be negative numbers and black will be positive.  Write down the location of the vertices.  Place the shape at the orgin (0,0).

Flip over two cards.  The first one is the x and the second is the y in the order pair (x,y).

Practice sliding until you go through the deck of cards.

Practice Rotation:

Practice rotating the same shape or a different shape.  Make sure the vertices are marked.  Begin out doing 90 degree rotations around vertice A.  Place the shape at any coordinate you choose.  For my picture, I chose (2,5).  Use a pencil to rotate.  Have your student write down the new coordinates.  You can continue practice rotating by 180, 270, and 360.

Practice Reflections:

Use one of your shapes to practice reflections over the x and y axis.  Have student mark down original position on coordinate plane.  I chose (-3, 2) for my picture.  After you flip the shape, have student trace around it with the dry erase marker.  Write down the new position.

Need More Practice?

Krystal Mills over at Lessons from the Middle has an amazing free resource that answers the questions, "When am I ever going to use this?"  In this freebie you'll learn how to animate a shape the student creates.  It comes with a little video to show you a finished product too.

How do you teach transformations?