CIRCLE

PUZZLES
22 Geoboards Grades K-2 1996 Cuisenaire Company of America, Inc.
Overview
Children investigate the various ways a circle can be cut into five parts. In
this activity, children have the opportunity to:
begin to discover properties of circles
work with shapes that have curved edges
reconstruct a circle from a set of puzzle pieces
Getting Ready
What Youll Need
Geoboards, 1 per child
Rubber bands
Circular geodot paper, page 93
Envelopes, 1 per pair
Overhead circular Geoboard and/or
circular geodot paper transparency
(optional)
The Activity
You may want to point out that if
there were more pegs closer together,
the rubber band would better follow
the curve of the circle.
Note that the peg in the middle
represents the center of the circle.
Introducing
Display a circular Geoboard. Put one rubber
band around the twelve pegs on the circum-
ference of the circle, as shown.
Ask children what this shape looks like. After
establishing that the shape corresponds to a
circle, have children copy the shape on their
Geoboards. Then ask children to use rubber bands to divide the
circle into two or three parts of any size.
Have children show their Geoboards and discuss the ways in which
they divided their circles.
CIRCLE
PUZZLES
GEOMETRY NUMBER MEASUREMENT LOGIC
Properties of circles
Spatial visualization
Congruence
Counting
ETA/Cuisenaire
On Their Own
The Bigger Picture
Thinking and Sharing
Use prompts such as these to promote class discussion:
N How did you divide a circle into five pieces? How many rubber bands did
you use?
N How would you describe your pieces? (Words like wide, narrow, pointy, straight,
and curved may help.)
N Are any of your pieces the same size and shape? How can you be sure?
N How did you know what to do when you were trying to put a puzzle together?
N Are some puzzles easier than others to solve? Why?
Writing
Ask children to list everything they know about a circle.
Extending the Activity
1. Have children repeat this activity by making 6- or 7-piece circle puzzles.
2. Ask children to repeat the activity, but allow them to use only one rubber band to divide
the circle into five parts.
1996 Cuisenaire Company of America, Inc. CIRCLE PUZZLES N Geoboards N Grades K-2 23
How many ways can you cut a circle into five parts to make a
circle puzzle?
Work with a partner on your circular Geoboard. Use 1 rubber band to outline the
big circle.
Use more rubber bands to divide the circle into 5 parts.
Record your work on geodot paper.
Now find different ways to divide the circle into 5 parts. Record each way.
Choose the way you like best. Cut out that circle drawing. Then cut along the lines
inside that circle. You now have a 5-piece circle puzzle.
Put your circle puzzle into an envelope, and write your names on the front.
Trade envelopes with other pairs, and try to do each others puzzles.
ETA/Cuisenaire

24 N Geoboards N Grades K-2 1996 Cuisenaire Company of America, Inc.
The rubber band line segments that children use to divide their Geoboard
circles into five puzzle pieces have special names. Any line segment that
connects two points on the circumference of a circle is called a chord.
Any line segment that bisects a circle, or cuts it into two equal parts, is
called the diameter of the circle. A diameter can also be described as a
chord that passes through the center of a circle.
Any line segment that connects the center of a circle to any point on the
circumference is known as the radius. Every diameter may be cut in half
into two radii.
In describing their puzzle pieces and hearing their classmates describe
theirs, children can begin to develop an understanding of the properties of
a circle. For example, they can notice that the outer edge of a puzzle piece,
like the outer edge of a circle, is curved, and that when all the pieces are
put in place the outer edges form the circumference, or outer edge, of
the circle.
The minimum number of rubber bands needed to divide the circle into five
puzzle pieces depends upon how children use the rubber bands. If they
connect every two pegs with one rubber band, children need from three to
five rubber bands to make the five puzzle pieces. It is possible, however, for
children to make all five puzzle pieces by stretching one rubber band
around several pegs to create a quadrilateral like the one below.
Teacher Talk Wheres the Mathematics?
c
h
o
r
d
d
ia
m
e
t
e
r
radius
ETA/Cuisenaire
1996 Cuisenaire Company of America, Inc. CIRCLE PUZZLES N Geoboards N Grades K-2 25
Children may observe that, in any triangle they form by stretching one rub-
ber band around the center point and two points on the circumference of
the circle, the two straight sides are equal. This happens because the two
sides are radii of the circle. Such triangles are said to be isosceles. Although
children arent likely to use this word, they may be able to explain that two
sides are equal either in their own words or by showing that the paper re-
cording of this triangle can be folded in half so the two sides match exactly.
Some children may also discover that any triangle that has a diameter as
one of its sides is a right triangle or, as children might say, has a square
corner. Notice that each of the triangles in the following diagrams has a
diameter as one of its sides. No matter where the third vertex of the
triangle is located on the circumference, the resulting triangle is always a
right triangle.
Children may also discover, intuitively, that chords of equal length are
formed when a rubber band is stretched across equal numbers of pegs.
In the quadrilateral shown at the right, the two shorter sides are congruent
chords of the circle. They cut off pieces of the circle that are also congruent.
Likewise, the two longer sides of the quadrilateral are congruent chords and
they cut off equal-sized pieces of the circle. Although
children in grades K-2 are not likely to have the vocabu-
lary to articulate these ideas on congruency, they will
certainly be able to perceive these ideas intuitively.
Comparing puzzle pieces by laying one piece on top of
the other will also help children to experience this idea
of same size and same shape.
Children do a good deal of counting as they check to see whether they have
made five puzzle pieces. When they come up short with only four pieces,
children must experiment with the placement of the final line segment to be
sure that they are not creating too many pieces. If they inadvertently create
six, seven, or eight puzzle pieces, they have a hard time removing line seg-
ments to get back to just five pieces. In fact, many children find it easier to
start over rather than to try to remove a few unneeded puzzle pieces.
ETA/Cuisenaire