Base and height or triangle.

Finally, after resting for so long, a blog post! Thursday was a school event, "Olympics carnival." followed by a public holiday and the weekends. Hence, blogging about school lessons was postphoned for a short while.

Today, class 5-5 learnt about how to identify the base and height of a triangle. To us adults, identifying the base and height is just like walking. It comes so naturally when we take a look at the diagram. However, this is not the case for students.

As this concept depends heavily on the students' visualisation skills, it is very hard to explain where is the height and base of a triangle.

After thinking it long and hard after the lesson, I decided to make use of a common ruler to help identify base and height.
Use a marker and draw the same thing as I did as shown below.
Now, you have a self-made a height/base identifier tool. How do you use it?
If the diagram tells you where the base is,use the line on the ruler to match the base first. The perpendicular line will then be the height of the triangle at it's highest point.

I hope this "mini-tool' will help students to identify the base and height more easily. It's good because you can bring this into exams! :)

Mr Xie.