Children's Book assignment

On my first day of taking over after my student teacher, I handed each group of four students 4 different color triangles and asked them to figure out which ones were similar.  But before they could get started, I asked them to discuss what they would need to do, what tools they'd like to have, and what information they would need.

Crickets.

So scrap that, (2 days' lesson plans for the price of 1!) we spent the whole period talking about what it means for polygons to be similar, what it takes for polygons to be similar, and what shortcuts there are for triangles.

Thinking back, maybe at least part of their hangup was that I asked them to go from the abstract (just solve this problem) to a concrete (here are physical triangles).

Anyway....I needed some way to assess whether they at least remembered (hopefully understood) what it takes for polygons to be similar.  And I did not want just another worksheet.  So with my fingers crossed, I asked them to write a children's book that included answers to the questions

1. What does it mean for polygons to be similar?  How can you tell if two polygons are similar?
2. What does it take to figure out if triangles are similar?

First I showed them this video for inspiration.  Then they had about 10 minutes in class that day (Friday) and 10 minutes on Monday.  

Grade-wise this was worth as much as a journal assignment that they occasionally have, which is not very much at all.

I got back about 4 books, out of two classes, that were about Geometry in general, but had absolutely nothing to do with similar polygons.  So that was fun to see that after explaining the assignment 10 times and having the questions posted on my website.  Sigh.....But the rest of them were really cute!  And any misconceptions they still had were quite clear and I could immediately address them.

My five-year-old loved hearing me read the books, especially the ones that involved princes and princesses.  

Here are some pictures.