FINALLY, my post about Dance, Dance, Transversal with my Geometry classes. I tweeted about this and promised I would blog about it, but told myself I wouldn’t until I got through the other draft blog posts I had started and not finished. Therefore I have published 3 posts tonight and this is my 4th! Please ignore the fact that I should be grading…my quarter ends Friday.
Important Note: This is not my original idea…I got it from a teacher in my district, but modified it to fit my needs. I renamed it Dance, Dance, Transversal from his Dance, Dance, Geometry simply because we were dancing around the transversal.
How to play:
1. Purchase masking tape or painters tape for the floor.
2. Locate a large area to play that also has a computer and projector. Or move the desks in your classroom.
3. Tape two parallel lines & a transversal on the floor, one for each student. OR since I have 38, I did 19 and paired the students up. Here is a picture I took before I finished putting all of the tape on the ground in our house area.
4. Create a powerpoint that moves similar to Dance, Dance, Revolution with the words/locations flying up the screen. Since this was not my idea, I do not want to share the powerpoint I received from my district teacher friend, but I will share a screen shot to give you an idea. You can do this by using powerpoint & creating a slide with the angles you want them to dance, like corresponding, alt. interior, alt. exterior, vertical. Then type the words of those angles at the top and copy and paste them at the bottom and then animate the words at the bottom in the following manner…. animations-lines-up-as one object. The more words you add at the bottom, the more will fly up the screen that the students have to dance to. Then you need to set the time; you can do different rounds by speeding up the flying of the words through…start after previous-duration. Change the duration to speed it up. Add music to play during the slide. *
5. Send a text via Remind101 to your students the night before telling them to bring their dancing shoes for Dance, Dance, Transversal.
6. Play! We played in pairs so the student watching could help correct the student dancing. This became very loud. We also had a boy vs. girl dance off in each class where the boys and girls each chose their tribute dancer and then the boys judged the girl and the girls judged the boy.
7. This does not take all period, maybe 20-30 minutes. We went back into the classroom and they had time to start working on their review for the test the next day.
I did this as a review before a test, but also could see how it would have been a good activity to do right after learning about all of the angles around a transversal. The students had a blast…it was LOUD, so warn the classes around you. The students had a blast, they were SOOOO bad at getting the angles right. It takes a lot of coordination especially when we got into the faster and longer levels. I would definitely do this again!
*I did not make the powerpoint I used, so my directions in step 4 are as detailed as I could get. I was trying to figure it out the best I could for you, so you could make it for yourself!
How could this be modified for later concepts in Geometry? They definitely liked the dancing idea, I would love to find a way to harness that!
Algebrainiac 
Excellent! However, I learned the hard way that masking tape won’t come off a wooden floor and will bring the wrath of the custodian upon you for the rest of the year…painter’s tape is worth the investment.
Ha ha ha. Thanks for sharing, you never want to upset them!! I’ve also heard that electrical tape would work and is colorful.
Thanks Jessica, this looks really good. I think it’s almost necessary to have a partner or else you could absolutely have a kid jumping around with no idea if he was correct or not.
Yes but they were still jumping like maniacs. 🙂 when I do this again I would be a little more clear.
This is a pretty cool idea. How can you make sure they are getting it “right” though? If it was review, how could you confirm that they were “dancing” in the right “angles?” Seems like a fun and great idea though!
Thanks for sharing! I cannot wait to use this when I review congruent angles as a warm-up for congruent triangle proofs. I actually had a lot of fun making the power point. 🙂
I am totally using this tomorrow! Thanks for sharing =).
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What do you mean when you say they danced around the transversal? How was one person able to show a set of angles (such as alternate exterior angles)?
I have never seen or played Dance, Dance Revolution so I’m not sure I completely understand.
Thanks.
Thanks for visiting! The parallel lines and transversal is taped on the ground and the students place their feet in the correct locations to match the given requirement, like corresponding. They had a blast and it was fun to watch!! Thanks for the comment!
I absolutely love this idea and understand you not wanting to share as it is not your PowerPoint and I think I get the idea but have a couple of questions –
1. The words on the bottom scroll up to the top and when they hit the top is when they are supposed to hit the move, correct?
2. Is it set to music?? Is it actually on a beat or do they just watch/you call it out?
Thanks, I am soooooo excited about this idea!!! Could you ask your friend if it is ok to share??
This is great!! I need to try something like this since I am currently teaching transversals and my kids love to move around! I enjoy reading your blog – I have nominated you for the Liebster Award! Check out my blog for more details! 🙂
Did you try it with your students? I would love to hear how it went Christine!
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We played Transversal Twister in my class this year. I used spinners to tell students what numbered angle one foot had to be on and which type of angle pair to put the other foot on. Make sure you have the not possible option or have two sets of transversals. It was fun and worth the class time.
Is there anyway you can send the PowerPoint if you ask your mentor for permission? This will go perfect for my lesson on Wednesday!
Any luck getting the powerpoint via e-mail? If so, is there any way I could also get a copy? This sounds great, and if I don’t have to reinvent the wheel myself, I would love to use one that is already made! Thanks!
I would love to know more about the PowerPoint. I’m not familiar with dance dance Revolution and not real sure that I understand the directions from the PowerPoint. I am finishing systems of linear equations and headed into transversal’s.
I would absolutely love to do this with my class. I just wanted to know was there anyway to get approval from you mentor to possibly share the PowerPoint through email. Thanks
Thanks for the idea. I found it on Pinterest. I used PowerPoint and transferred the slides to Movie Maker then added music. I put one foot position on one slide, and the second foot position a few seconds later. I will modify it for other material in the future.
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Does anyone know how to create this on powerpoint? I would like to use additional songs.
Love this idea!! Going to start this in a few weeks. Can I please have the PowerPoint? Or step by step how to create it?
Was anyone able to get/share the PowerPoint?