Last Updated on October 3, 2024 by Editorial Team
When children learn something new, excitement and glee light up the atmosphere. Children can beautifully depict the world around them through paintings, drawings, and colors. They experiment with various shapes like squares, circles, ovals, rectangles, and triangles.
Children possess very dynamic learning capabilities, and their world evolves every day with new data to the knowledge bank. Once the child is familiar with basic shapes, it helps to understand more complex structures in the future.
Introducing the triangle shape to kids can be made facile and effortless with the help of a few manipulatives, activities, and games. These can help them identify and use forms through fun-filled learning experiences.
Games for introducing triangles to little aspirants
1. Spot the triangle
Elementary math involves learning basic shapes and counting. These concepts are tested in this game. The game provides the child with different tasks in each round, namely counting the number of triangles, identifying its color, or even picking the triangle from two figures displayed.
The game is highly interactive and is designed for the beginner. It helps the child to get familiar with shapes, colors, and even counting. The appearance of the triangle in every round of the game ensures that the child retains the concept through repetition.
2. Draw the triangle
Through this game, the child is introduced to the next level of learning shapes, which is drawing them. The game focuses on drawing triangles only. A game is designed intelligently for multiplayer; it offers children a competitive spirit along with an enriched learning experience.
Dots are displayed on the screen. The children join two dots at a time with a straight line. The goal is to form a triangle. The player who completes a triangle first scores a point. The game continues till all options to create triangles are exhausted.
The game tests the power of reasoning and keen observation; it will keep the child engaged while keeping the learning process going.
3. Paint along
Drawing enhances the child’s motor activities along with making the learning experience highly enjoyable. Kids love to color, and this game uses this fact as an advantage.
This game has various options that a child can choose from. From drawing and painting shapes to different figures, the child can pick one pattern, one drawing tool, and the various other options to draw the perfect triangle and all triangle-related objects.
The child proceeds to draw as per the process on the left side of the screen and once this is done accurately, earns a rock as a point. The games test the child’s power of observation and help in learning to draw a shape.
4. Scavenger hunt
Learning is always fun with friends, especially when it is subsumed into a game. Scavenger Hunt is a popular game that can be played in a lot of variations. One such variation can be integrating the triangle shape so that the child better understand the shape and its properties.
The educator or the parent needs to put different triangle-shaped objects in different corners of the room. The child now has to find all the objects which look like a triangle. These can be a particular triangle-shaped cushion or a nacho, and even an upside-down kept umbrella.
To make the activity even more thrilling, the child can be given a target. For example, find 5 items in 5 minutes. This activity can also be conducted for a group of students. This way, the student who collects the maximum triangle-shaped objects wins the game.
Learning through playing in a group with the help of activities like the Scavenger hunt helps the child understand concepts in an easier way and offers the freedom even to turn mistakes into lessons. Moreover, playing together in a group fosters the spirit of sportsmanship along with a healthy learning atmosphere.
5. Triangles with paper strips
This is a fun activity that will no doubt have messy hands but will also impart clarity of concepts.
The educator or the adult cuts strips out of coloured craft paper or cardstock and demonstrates how to glue them at corners to obtain a triangle. It is then the turn of the children to try the same.
The game can be made competitive by asking them to make triangles of a particular colour by choosing from a large mix of them. Children get acquainted with colours and also create triangles, thus helping them with their motor activity too.
To make the activity even more challenging, the children can be given a time limit. For example, whoever colours and pastes the maximum number of triangles in the next 20 minutes wins the game.
6. Playdoh and buttons
This game uses play-doh and some colored triangle buttons. One can easily get triangle buttons from a nearby utility store or e-commerce. Give the children playdoh of various colours. It may be a good idea to wear aprons lest they mess up their clothes. Ask the children to roll out small flat cakes from the play-doh. Give them all buttons and demonstrate how triangles are made by arranging the buttons on them in the form of a triangle.
The game can be made more challenging by instructing them to choose particular colors or make triangles of various sizes.
This would enhance their knowledge of colors and size comparison too.
7. Identify types of triangles
This game is for the slightly older lot. In this game, the players would be asked different questions on the types of triangles. For example, a question could be, which triangle has a right angle?
Other questions could be, what is the main unique property of a scalene triangle? The knowledge of kids with respect to the different types of triangles would be put to test in this game. Students of 3rd grade and higher can play this game to evaluate their understanding of the concepts.
This is a fun game that can be incorporated as a classroom activity and can be used by educators to evaluate the students. Moreover, this just does not test the knowledge but also builds up the understanding level of the students when it comes to the types of triangles. The game provides a score, where students can monitor their performance.
8. Block Triangle Puzzle
Every kid loves a good jigsaw puzzle, but have you tried and indulged them in a game wherein they have to arrange sets of triangles in a big piece of the triangle while making sure that there are no empty gaps?
This game revolves around the same concept. There is a big triangle, which needs to be filled up with small pieces that are given as an option. The player needs to choose which piece would fit where assuming that no piece can be left, all are to be used and no gaps should be there in the bigger triangle.
Not only teaching about triangles, but this game also stimulates the brain to think harder and make place for all the parts that are given as an option.
9. Triangle
This is a fun mind and eye coordination game, where the bars are falling, and there is a tri-coloured triangle that needs to be rotated according to the bar of the colour to smash it. Basically, if a red bar is falling, the player needs to rotate the triangle to keep the red part on the top so that the same colour as the bar is able to smash it.
If the player is late or is not able to do so, the game is over! But the catch in the game is that the bar is swiftly falling, so the player must be super quick in rotating the triangle. This triangle game not only involves the learning of triangles but also develops reflexes as the player is encouraged to think and act promptly.
10. Recognizing Triangles
This game is perfect for a little learner who is still learning to recognize and identify a triangle. With multiple shapes given as options, the player needs to choose the triangle from all of the shapes like circle, rectangle, and square. To make the game more thrilling, in many levels, triangle objects are given which depict a triangle, for example, a signboard, and even at some levels, a nacho!
This way, the student not only learns to recognize a triangle but is also able to relate the many real-life figures that are triangle-shaped. Moreover, a lot of times, the game asks for a particular triangle, which helps in building differentiation skills in children. Apart from this, they are able to differentiate between the various kinds of triangles.
Let’s talk science: A Triangle is a strong shape
Ever wondered why a lot of buildings, roofs, and bridges are triangle in shape? Well, to your surprise it is because out of all the shapes, the triangle is a solid, robust, and strong shape[1].
When engineers build structures, they wish to construct something that can hold a lot of weight. Imagine hundreds of cars on one single bridge; it would have to be solid to bear the weight of all those cars, plus the humans in the cars. Therefore, they need a structure that doesn’t fall down when too much force is applied to it.
Therefore, construction architects and engineers choose a triangle shape[2] because it transfers force or the load in a way in which it can endure it fully. Basically, when the load is applied to any of the corners of the triangle, it gets distributed on each of the sides equally. This way, the two sides of the triangle are squeezed, which can also be called compression.
This is the reason why architects, builders, and civil engineers trust the triangle shape in plenty of bulky projects. Some of them are:
1. Bridges:
To build a bridge, multiple triangles are combined together so that they can apply load and tension at different places. This way, the compression or the load happens on the outer sides, and the tension happens on the inner and the bottom of the triangle. The bridge is thus able to hold tons of kilos of weight and does not get ruptured for a long time.
2. Roofs:
We often see roofs at snowy areas to be triangular, and roofs at plains to be flat. Ever wondered why is that? Well, when it snows, a lot of weight is collected on the roof, which can be easily carried by no other shape, but a triangle. When it snows, the load of the snow is divided equally into both sides, so that the top of the roof does not have to bear the weight. This way, the houses are safe when it snows. The biggest reason here too is because a triangle is considered to be a strong shape!
3. Buildings:
With modern architecture going to new heights, we often see a lot of buildings being triangular in shape. Most of us think of it being an architect’s creation, but there is a lot more to it than design. Architects and engineers create buildings that are triangle in shape so that they can lift the weight of people and things inside. Apart from looking great, it is a smart solution to create long-lasting buildings which can endure the weight and bulk easily.
To conclude
Helping a child to recognize a shape and identify it from the surroundings is a great task. But a few games and activities can make the whole learning experience a delight, as it brings knowledge along, which can be grasped during play-time and can be retained for a longer time.
In addition, it is a good means of connecting with the child and understanding their perception. At the same time, the parents and educators need to be encouraging and motivating so that learning never stops for the little ones. Always remember that motivation and help go a long way in building self-esteem for the child.
Moreover, at early stages, a helping hand in learning and education can build a strong base in further education.
References:
- World’s Strongest Shape. (2012). Archer Defterios.
- Why is a Triangle a Strong Shape? (2020, August 17). Let’s Talk Science.
An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’,