Creating bulletin boards for the school hallway can be a real challenge. Not only must they look impressive, but they also have to show students are learning important skills. Take the hassle away with these geometry bulletin boards.
This post features four geometry bulletin board ideas with mini lessons to go along with creating them. Each board features a picture book. I hope your students enjoy creating these fun, yet educational projects!
Geometry Bulletin Boards – Teaching Idea #1
Oh Geome-tree
The Carpenters Gift: A Christmas Tale about the Rockefeller Center Tree by David Rubel
Before reading the story, ask students what they know about Habitat for Humanity. If students don’t already know about this organization, explain that Habitat for Humanity is a global organization that works with families to build homes.
Prompt students to make a connection between building homes and the need to know geometry.
The story begins in 1931 during the Great Depression. Henry’s father has the idea to cut down trees and take them an hour away to New York City to sell to people celebrating Christmas. After selling trees for most of the day, Henry’s father gives the remaining trees to nearby workers. The Rockefeller workers take the tallest tree and decorate it with a paper star, paper garland, cranberries, and a few shiny tin cans. Henry picks up a fallen pinecone from the tree.
The next day the Rockefeller workers come to Henry’s house with wood to build Henry’s family a new home. In the spring, the home is finished. Henry decides to plant the pinecone as a thank you. The story comes full circle when the tree that grew from Henry’s pinecone becomes the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center.
Geometry Bulletin Boards – Teaching Idea #2
A Cloak for the Dream by Aileen Friedman
This story is about a tailor and his three sons. The tailor is hired to make three outfits and three cloaks for the archduke. Since he doesn’t have time to do all the work himself, the tailor asks each of his sons to create one cloak. The cloaks are created using different geometric patterns.
A follow-up to this book is to have students design a patterned cloth that can be turned into a cloak. This photo shows my students designing a star pattern using a square center and triangles. Some skills that can be taught include:
- Depending on the pattern, students can identify shapes and their properties. Have students work with more advanced shapes such as rhombi, trapezoids, hexagons, and so on.
- When patterns incorporate triangles, many triangle properties can be discussed.
Geometry Bulletin Boards – Teaching Idea #3
Grandfather Tang’s Story by Ann Tompert
Grandfather Tang and his granddaughter Little Soo play with tangram puzzles. Soon Grandfather tells Little Soo a story that includes many animals including foxes, dogs, rabbits, turtles, and more.
Have students create each animal from the story using tangram puzzles. Some skills that can be taught include:
- identifying shapes
- spatial relationships
- flip and rotation
- congruent shapes
I recommend using plastic, wooden, or laminated cardstock pieces when students are learning about tangrams. For a bulletin board, have each student create a different animal from construction paper tangrams. Have students glue the animal shapes onto a contrasting piece of construction paper. These look great displayed on a bulletin board.
This link takes you to a tangram pattern. The pdf includes two sizes. I recommend using the small size. The pictures above were placed on an 8 by 8-inch piece of construction paper using the smaller tangram puzzle pattern.
Get your patterns here.
Geometry Bulletin Boards – Teaching Idea #4
Mummy Math: An Adventure in Geometry by Cindy Neuschwander
Twins Matt and Bibi go to Egypt with their parents to explore the pyramids. The story is full of descriptions of three-dimensional shapes as Matt and Bibi go through the pyramid looking for the pharaoh.
This project was super simple to create, yet an effective learning tool. Students created the 3-D figures by assembling mini marshmallows and toothpicks. Next, students glued the completed figures onto construction paper. We pinned these to a bulletin board. The finished project looked amazing.
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