Transformania

Quick Teacher Tips

What students practice

Grade 8 · CCSS 8.G.A.1, 8.G.A.2, 8.G.A.3. A turn-based falling-blocks game on one shared board, where every piece is a transformation students perform with their own hands before it drops.

• Translations left and right by a number of grid units
• Rotations of 90°, 180°, 270° and 360°, clockwise and counterclockwise, around a fixed point
• Reflections across vertical and horizontal lines
• Sequences of transformations, done in order (Hard)

Printables: full teacher guide · pre-assessment · visual notes · entry ticket · worksheet with answer key · exit ticket

Key vocabulary

• pre-image / image: the figure before a transformation, and the figure after it
• translation: a slide; every square moves the same number of units in the same direction
• rotation: a turn around a fixed point; each quarter-turn is 90°
• clockwise / counterclockwise: the way a clock’s hands turn, and the opposite way
• reflection: a flip across a line; every point lands the same distance from the line, on the other side

Tips for using the game

• The loop: a figure appears above the white dotted line; students slide it to a starting spot and press Confirm start. Then an instruction appears, a faint ghost keeps the pre-image in place, and students perform the transformation and press Check. A correct image drops, stacks and can complete rows.
• Rotations on tracing paper: the figure sits on a sheet of tracing paper pinned at a red point. Students drag the handle (or press the up arrow for clockwise, the down arrow for counterclockwise) to turn it one quarter-turn at a time, and the arrow on the paper, which starts pointing up, shows how far it has turned. 180° takes two turns and 360° takes four, and the game checks the direction as well as the amount.
• Reflections: both a vertical and a horizontal line are shown, so students must pick the right line: the left and right keys flip across the vertical line, up and down across the horizontal one.
• Taking turns: students and the computer (or 2 to 4 students) take turns on one board: a piece each, then the other player’s turn. Watching the computer do its transformations correctly is a model, too.
• Xs and hints: a wrong check names the mistake (wrong direction, wrong line, too far) with a hint; after the second, the correct move plays on the board. The first wrong check on a question adds an X. Three Xs lose, and a completed row removes one of that player’s Xs.
• Practice: one student with no Xs and no opponent, and the skills you choose.
• Hard: turns up to 360°, translations up and down, sequences, and reflection lines that are not drawn: the instruction says where the line is.
• Winning: the first player to clear the goal number of rows (5 on Normal, 6 on Hard) wins. A piece that stops above the dotted line loses, and the floor rises every few pieces.
• Keyboard: everything works from the keyboard, including the menus (arrow keys choose the mode and level, Enter plays) and turning the tracing paper (up arrow clockwise, down arrow counterclockwise). In Player vs Player, 2 to 4 students share the same keys and take turns (number keys 2 to 4 on the menu choose how many).