Hexagon Transformations

This problem gives children the chance to explore properties of shapes in a practical way and also encourages them to visualise.

You may like to introduce Cut and Make to the group before trying this problem. (It is a similar idea but based on cutting up a square.)

It would be useful for learners to have access to lots of hexagons which they can experiment with by cutting and rearranging pieces. (Here is a Word document of hexagons and here is a jpg file)

You could encourage children to visualise the rearrangements before actually cutting up the hexagons. This could be organised by asking them to talk in pairs about what they will do and then to convince another pair that their cutting will work before they are allowed to take scissors to paper.

What does a parallelogram/rhombus/equilateral triangle look like?

How could you cut the hexagon into two/three/four pieces?