Math and Drama Integration

Well this is definitely a lesson I was looking forward to!  Math has been my favourite subject ever since I can remember, so when Melissa hinted that today’s lesson would be incorporating math and drama I was hesitant at first but privileged to see how well it went!  Math can be a pretty dry subject – some people call it a pretty ‘colourless’ subject being that there is usually a right or wrong answer (although different ways to get them!).   Being able to incorporate drama into math will perhaps make math more colourful and make the subject more popular for the future.

Curriculum Connections

Grade 5 - Geometry and Spatial Sense

Create and analyse designs by translating and/or reflecting a shape, or shapes, using a variety of tools.

Drama

B1.3 -  Plan and shape the direction of the drama or role play by collaborating with others to develop ideas, both in and out of role.

The Activity:  In Shape of...

Today’s activity was very creative and had everyone thinking on their feet.  The lesson was directed towards the grade 5 level in developing stronger spatial sense and geometry skills.  The activity had us walking along the lines of the tiled floor, then when a number was called we had to create a polygon with the number of sides that was called.  What made this even more fun was we could use our arms, fingers, hands, feet or legs to make these shapes, so everyone made something different!  The was a very fun activity that I would like to include in my teaching because it makes math fun; which isn’t an easy thing to do!  But what I appreciate the most from this activity is it had students collaborating with each other by getting into groups to successfully create the shapes.

The Theory

The theory we looked at today was Dewey’s Progressive Theory.  The essence of this theory is we should set a foundation for which students can systematically build up the necessary skills confidently.  As taken from the notes of this course:

Setting a foundation in the emotional, artistic and creative aspects of our development can help students promote diversity and inclusion in the classroom, and then carry it forward outside the classroom in other social settings.

Wrap up

Today’s activities have been an absolute thrill.  If I only heard of the activities we performed today, I wouldn’t have believed they would work simply because math can sometimes be distant from the arts.  However my actually participating in them today, I realize that math can involve more movement such as reflections, translations and rotations, which clearly can resonate with drama.  I look forward to making the math classroom more colourful in the future!