Hands-on math

Suma Vivekanandan

Teaching mathematics to primary school students is a challenge and their queries provoke me to think of and find new ways to teach.

Hands-on activities and games, as suggested by Shri P K Srinivasan, make teaching and learning math interesting and fun. Following his techniques, I have and continue to develop new ways to teach, and every day, along with my students, I learn something new.

Here is an activity I did with students of class 4 to help them understand the circle, its parts, and the related vocabulary.

Six students make a circle (as large as possible) by holding their hands and sit down on the floor. They say, “We are a CIRCLE.”

The rest of the class stands around them watching the activity.

One student from the observers comes and sits in the centre of the circle and says, “I am the CENTRE of the CIRCLE. I can be given a name and be called ‘point O’.”

Two students go around the circle with a thread or rope saying, “The distance all the way around the CIRCLE is called the CIRCUMFERENCE.”

The student in the CENTRE stretches both hands touching two students on the CIRCUMFERENCE and says, “I am the DIAMETER. I am a LINE SEGMENT that passes through the CENTRE and touches two OPPOSITE POINTS on the CIRCUMFERENCE.”

The student in the CENTRE then stretches one arm touching a student on the CIRCUMFERENCE and says, “I am the RADIUS. I am a LINE SEGMENT touching the CENTRE and any POINT on the CIRCUMFERENCE. I am also half the DIAMETER in length.”

Another student sits a little away from the CENTRE inside the circle and extends both hands to touch two students on the circumference saying, “I am a CHORD. I am a LINE SEGMENT, touching any two POINTS on the CIRCUMFERENCE. If I pass through the CENTRE, I become the DIAMETER. DIAMETER is the longest CHORD.”

Three students from the circle rise up and say, “We are an ARC, a part of the CIRCUMFERENCE of the CIRCLE.”

This activity can be repeated a few times over the week giving all students an opportunity to participate in the activity and internalize the concepts and vocabulary.

The students in my class thoroughly enjoyed the activity and learnt the definitions without any difficulty.