Flips, Slides, and Turns

Are what I use to teach this... however, please be sure you also tell them the correct mathematical terms (translations, reflections, rotations). Even with my second and third graders we use these terms, not "slides, flips, turns" (but that's just me, I have this thing about using correct terminology). Anyway... off that soap box...

I use quilts and/or tessellations. Quilting is especially good, as you can also include 2-D figures, symmetry, we discuss whether the pattern is a translations, reflection or rotation. We also discuss reflectional symmetry and rotational symmetry. Students then create their own quilt squares (we use .5cm graph paper to be sure the designs are exactly the same size and shape).

I found pictures of actual quilt squares and made a PowerPoint of JUST the pictures and as we go through the slides, they tell me figures, symmetry, reflection, rotation, translation, etc. to describe the pattern they see.

I love Escher, so we also bring in tessellations. I have them create their own tessellated pattern.

With my 4th graders, I do a Geometry Dance. I teach them the steps-how I'd move if I were doing a slide (simply sliding one foot in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal motion and then moving the other foot to join it), a flip (facing one direction, then doing a 180 jump to face the opposite direction), or a turn (one foot stays in place and we rotate 90 degrees for each foot...kind of like a pivot in basketball). I am the "caller" for the dance and they complete the movements as I call them out randomly. I've also played "Teacher Says" instead of "Simon Says" with these movements. The kids really like it, since it gets them active.

We play "Leader Says" in the gym or class to experience flip, turn ,slide.
I like to use rotate (instead of turn) as that seems to be the word they will eventually need to know in intermediate school.

Like Simon Says the students stand, face me (or a chosen leader) and move their bodies to the direction given. For instance, if the leader says slide they slide left or right (we also play this game to reinforce directions on a compass), or they slide east or west or north or south depending on the direction they begin.

We flip by turning around and we rotate east or west , north or south.

They love getting down to the last few kids!

It's fun to also introduce degrees of rotation...90degree turn east, 180 degree etc... One student made the discovery that 360 degree rotations equals two flips in a row! Great thinking!

I did a great activity that I got out of Mailbox Magazine. The kids loved it and all of them mastered the concept after this activity!

All you need for each child is a sentence strip, and trapezoid pattern block (with a tiny piece of tape to mark one side or mark it with an X in washable marker), and a pencil.

To start, have each student demonstrate a slide by dragging the trapezoid from one end of the strip to the other, a turn by placing his fingers on the shape and rotating his wrist clockwise, and a flip by picking up the shape and turning it over.

Next, have the student return the trapezoid to the left side of the strip and trace the shape. He slides, turns, and flips the shape as desired across the sentence strip, tracing with pencil each time.

Then he trades strips with a partner. Each partner works independently to write the name of each movement across the bottom of the strip.

Now this last part I did a little differently. I didn't have them switch papers, I just had the child label their own strips as they went along. You could do it either way, depending on the level your kids are at.

Good luck and have fun! Let me know how it works out!

I just did this lesson this past Friday. I had my aide cut out little shapes on the ellison machine and then I had my students show each one with the shapes and they had to glue the shapes so that they had a representation of each one. My students really seemed to like it and it was hands on. You can also use pattern blocks and they can practice it as well. Hope this helps. :p

I Tried This. It Worked Very Well

Have A Worksheet Where Students Have An Original Shape On The Left And On The Right Of That Example The Shape Hase Either Slid, Flipped Or Turned. Give Each Student A Pieces Of Trancparency And Vis-a-vie Marker. Have Them Trace The Original Shape Onto The Transparency. Then Have Them Either Slide, Flip Or Turn The Transparency To Land On The Replica Shape.

Model First On The Overhead. Work Some Together Then Have Some For The Students To Work Independently.

Here is a PP I created to use with my kids

I just did this lesson last week. I started by having my kids on the floor and having them physically slide, flip and turn on the floor. Then I gave them a card that they drew themselves from the front on the front and from the back on the back. Then we did the 3 movements using these cards on their desks. Last I had them do the quilt challenge from the mathwire website. They cut out squares that are divided into 2 triangles (called half square triangles in quilting) and try to turn and slide them to match the quilt square patterns on display.

I do something similar to Nicole by cutting out letters, shapes, and numbers. I then take chalk and make a dotted line down the center of their desks. Students can then manipulate the slide, flip, or turn with the shapes. They feel what each one means when their hands make the movement.

I had the kids trace one of their hands and cut out two copies of it(an extra piece of paper behind the tracing). Then have them put the hands on top of each other and instruct them to flip one hand over and lay it beside the other. This shows them that an identical shape is mirrored when it is flipped. They can also do turns and slides by laying on the floor and being instructed to turn a quarter turn, etc.

I am currently in my junior year studying Elementary Education. In my Methods of Teaching Mathematics class, we just talked about strategies on teaching flips, slides and turns. The teacher grouped us into pairs and gave each of us 5 blocks. She told us to arrange the blocks in as many ways as we could to find how many possible ways 5 blocks could be arranged (not focusing on order, such as red, blue, pink, yellow, purple). One way obviously was to have all the blocks in one line and another way was to have four in a line and with one on the end (L shape). She took a constructivist approach by not giving us any directions, only telling us that they had to be touching on one side (not two corners of the blocks touching). We figured out that an L shape constitutes as 1 way, regardless of how it's flipped. This was an interesting way to get us thinking about similarities of shapes (focusing on flips, slides and turns). Hope this helps! I feel manipulatives often elucidate mathematical confusion for students.

I teach second and here's what I do when I teach it. I use an overhead and connecting cubes. I also give each one in the class 5-6 connecting cubes and have them make the shape I do. Then we practice doing the slides, flips and turns. I do it, they do it. After practicing then I show them the shape, turn off the projector, hide my hand and do a slide flip or turn. They tell me what I did. Afterward they do a worksheet on it and most of the time they will all get it right! -|--

Make a deck of cards that show translations, reflections, and rotations using many different shapes. Then play the game "Around the World" like you do with basic math facts. You have one person stand up behind another student. The teacher quickly flips the card up, and the students yell out the answer. The one who gets is right first continues on the the next student. If the person who was standing got it wrong, he sits in the other persons chair. The first person to make it all the way around the class wins!