In this task, groups of 3–4 students made a flower garden and measured parts of their body to represent the flowers, stalks, leaves, and grass. The task relates to achievement objectives for Geometry and Measurement from the mathematics and statistics learning area in The New Zealand Curriculum.
The Task
Body Garden
Provide string, scissors, coloured paper, and other suitable material for the task. Encourage students to talk about movement when they are arranging their shapes (for example, rotating, translating, and reflecting shapes). Ask them to record and compare the lengths and widths of petals, stalks, leaves, and so on.
Use string to measure a part of your body (for example, elbow to wrist) to use as the length
of the flower stalk.
On coloured paper, trace around other parts of your body (for example, fingers) and cut out
and paste these onto your picture as petals, leaves, and the flower’s centre.
Some features of students’ work used to make judgments in relation to the mathematics standards are described below.
Body Garden
: Illustrating the year 2 standard
Body Garden
: Illustrating the year 3 standard
PDF of this task and Illustrations of the year 2 and 3 standards (1.35MB)