Properties of Shape Growth Points

When teachers plan learning opportunities to help children recognise, define and understand Properties of Shape, they should consider a learning trajectory to describe what children’s learning typically looks like.

Although the Mathematics curriculum (ACARA 2018) includes level achievement standards and broad learning outcomes for children’s mathematical learning, sometimes teachers need more clarity about the major growth points of this learning trajectory. By using assessment tasks that position children along the learning trajectory, teachers can then provide instructional activities that will support them to move towards their next growth point.

The Shape growth points describe the development of children’s ability to recognise, match, compare, classify and understand the defining properties of shapes. Student experiences with shape should include more than just naming shapes and automatic recognition of them. Effective teaching of Shape should include:

• comparing a range of shapes (including non-prototypical shapes)

• developing the spatial vocabulary to describe shape properties

• exploring relationship between categories of shape

• identifying differences in the size and orientation of shapes

• understanding how to draw, create and construct shapes, with and without using technology

(Livy et al. 2019).