Tangrams are a traditional Chinese puzzle comprising seven pieces that fit together to make a square. The seven pieces include two large right angled isosceles triangles, one medium size right angled isosceles triangle, two small right angled isosceles triangles, a small parallelogram, and a small square. The literature shows tangrams have been…

The authors describe a lesson--"You Decide"--which challenges students but also provides opportunities for success for those who may struggle. They show how this lesson has been helpful for teachers in revealing some misconceptions that often exist in primary students' thinking. In this article, they share data on the apparent relative…

The purpose of this article is to report how Year 6 teachers used geometric reasoning tasks to foster students' mathematical attitudes and dispositions by encouraging communication as students constructed mathematical meaning for themselves. The Year 6 teachers implemented two tasks to provide a rich mathematical assessment opportunity…

The importance of ratio and proportional reasoning is regularly emphasised, however, the teaching and learning of these concepts continues to present challenges. In this article the authors explore a hands-on task, designed to encourage student visualisation of the concept of ratio. Teacher perceptions of this task were positive, indicating the…

Working within the context of a contest to find the most beautiful tourist attraction in the world, Year 5 students investigate the most symmetric building from a short-list of three iconic buildings. This involves investigating both line and rotational symmetry in order to make an informed decision about the symmetrical nature of each building.

Benchmarking is an important strategy for comparing the size of fractions. In addition, knowing whether a given fraction is greater or less than a particular benchmark (e.g., one-half) can support students with accurately locating the fraction on a number line. This article offers a game-based activity that engages students in discussions around…

As teachers we are encouraged to contextualize the mathematics that we teach. In this article, Belinda Beaman explains how she used the weather as a context for developing decimal understanding. We particularly enjoyed reading how the students were involved in estimating.