Parallel or Perpendicular

First off, get your kids dancing on this one! A few 60”s type Beatles moves would be in order. Why not? School and learning should be fun sometimes! Watch my class doing hand motions to this song. (coming soon)

These two terms and the concepts behind them can be very challenging to younger students. After singing this song in class for quite some time (the students having it easily memorized), I asked the students to write as many names for a rectangle shape as they could. Almost the whole class agreed with the student who said, “Perpendicular.” So that shape is a perpendicular? The concept had still alluded them. At this point I was able to reteach and explain the idea more clearly and most of the students understood. However, this was a good reminder for me that the songs are simply mnemonic devices for helping the students remember something they already understand. They do not make the 
students understand a concept.

One small suggestion is to show the double ”l” in the word parallel. When the song says, “…lookin” like a double ”l”,” it is speaking of two lower case ”l” s. (I have no clue how to type that so it is clear.)

Hand Motion Video