Sue Looney - Math Consultant

Yes please!!

YESSS!!!!

And that falls right in line with the Van Hiele’s research - explore and describe and then attach the vocabulary after.

Thanks for chatting and thinking about geometry. It’s often left until the end of the year but we can truly embrace geometric thinking every day as it connects to the world around us! In doing so children develop critical thinking skills that carry over into all areas of learning.

❤️ yes it’s the worst!!

That discuss and explore piece brings in the language to talk about what children are discovering.

Very beautiful - kids often naturally design with symmetry which I find fascinating!

I am super curious about your tile farm!

I hope you feel better soon! Rest up!

Love the connection to the face of a cube!

Beautiful!

I agree - this is so important in developing a robust and deep understanding of a shape.

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Activities that ask students to describe, to sort, to categorize, to compare and contrast all help move students to a deeper understanding of shape.

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Love that! And when a student says things like this isn’t a triangle it is a clue to their level of understanding. They are attending to the shape visually and as a whole vs analyzing its attributes. They haven’t attained the next level of understanding which is descriptive.

A3 when we introduce the rectangle first and then the square as a SPECIAL rectangle because it has all equal sides it helps children
Think categorically about these two shapes and to attend to their critical attributes.

Exploration and hands on manipulation is so important!!

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We tend to fall either into the loved geometry or didn’t love geometry camp. Theres isn’t much middle ground there!! Interesting … it was the one math class I almost failed!

Great seeing you even briefly in Atlanta!

Let’s talk about geometry. But first … please introduce answering prompt below. Please include #ElemMathChat in your responses! #looneymath

Who’s ready to talk geometry with me? Looking forward to this chat tonight!

I am so sorry to hear this. 😔

Thanks so much for this - glad to know this is out there helping students and teachers!

Farzanah and the 17 Camels - Natural Math Just published! May 2025 Farzanah and the 17 Camels is a beloved puzzle turned into a children’s book. It’s a magical adventure involving a clever girl, a tricky problem to solve, and a lot of determi...

I re-read "Farzanah and the 17 Camels" by @looneymath.bsky.social from cover to beautiful cover. On my mind: "Story and strategy overlap because a key element in hope is a strategy – a credible vision of how to get from here to there." (via weavers.org) #iTeachMath naturalmath.com/farzanah-and...