Geometry is a mandated part of the Victorian curriculum. It helps to build spatial reasoning in students and develops their logical thinking, deductive and analytical reasoning skills, along with problem-solving skills. However, it is often the Cinderella topic in Maths, being taught late in the year and considered just a fun but less important part of Maths. Further, many schools lack the resources to teach this subject in a developmentally appropriate way (Zimmermann, 2019). The Victorian Curriculum indicates that geometry should be taught with concrete models in the early years moving towards more abstract representations in the later years of primary school and early secondary school. Van Hiele’s levels of Geometric thought will be used to discuss key practical strategies to teach geometry purposefully from years F- 8. This will include the use of examples and non-examples, using the Concrete-Representational-Abstract approach with various manipulatives and visualising and classifying with geo-sticks.

Key takeaways:
1. Practical ideas to implement in your classroom from F-8.
2. Opportunity to explore and evaluate concrete materials in an interactive session.