Creating shapes using Logo Programming

Year 6 pupil from Sekolah Rendah Tumpuan Telisai, Tutong was chosen to do
the activity. The pupil is not familiar with the Logo Programming before and
does not have a computer at home. However, it is easier for me since he was
already learnt about different kinds of shapes and also angles.
The aims are the pupil will be able to:
➢ use the basic logo commands correctly in order to move the turtle.
➢ draw a variety of shapes using the correct basic commands.
➢ explain the features of each shape; angles and the number of sides.
Procedure
At first, I had to teach him the basic logo commands for moving the turtle.
The commands that I taught to him were as follows:
Basic Command Function
The forward command is used to move the turtle
FD
forward while drawing a line.
The back command is used to move the turtle
BK
backward while drawing a line.
RT <number of Turns the turtle to its right through the specified
degrees> number of degrees.
LT <number of Turns the turtle to its left through the specified
degrees> number of degrees.
CS command erases all the drawings on the screen and clears
CS the Main screen or the Graphics screen, and also brings the
turtle to the centre of screen.
REPEAT command allows to repeat a set of commands many
<REPEAT>
times without writing them again and again.

Then, I asked him to try out all the commands so that he will get familiar
with it.

After that, I asked him to draw the shape of a square. From his previous
lesson and his own prior knowledge, he told me that the square has 4 equal
sides and all the angles are 90°. He explained that each angle of a rectangle
is a right angle, which is 90°. At first, he found that it was difficult to draw
the square, but as he drew the shape for several times, he finally managed
to draw the shape. He also able to identify that 120 is represent the length
and 90 is represent the number of degrees.

Below are the steps that the pupil used to draw a square.

fd 120

rt 90

fd 120

rt 90
fd 120

rt 90

fd 120

Before I asked him to draw the rectangle, I asked him how many side does
the rectangle has. He was able to explain to me that the rectangle has both
parallel sides equal in length and all the angles are 90°, just like the square.
Below are the steps that the pupil used to draw a rectangle.

fd 170

rt 90

fd 220

rt 90

fd 170

rt 90

fd 220

Next, I asked him to draw a triangle. He told me that triangle has 3 sides and
there were different types of triangles that he had learnt at school.
Therefore, he told me that he was going to do an equilateral triangle.
Unfortunately, he has difficulties in doing the shape especially when turning
the turtle to the right with the appropriate number of degrees. Here, I helped
him in doing the activity.

Below are the steps that the pupil used to draw an equilateral triangle.

fd 60

rt 120

fd 60

rt 120

fd 60

Then, I explained to him that when we sum up all the three angles of a
triangle, it must be equal to 180°. He agreed with my explanation and said
that he also learnt it at school and his teacher told him that the sum of all
angles in a triangle is equal to 180°.

However, when I asked him to draw a circle, he was unable to do it and

found that it was difficult to draw. Therefore, I asked him to make any shape
that he wanted to try out. He said that he wanted to draw a hexagon. He
explained that the hexagon has 6 equal sides so he was using fd 60 for its
length and 45° for the number of degrees. Below are the steps that the pupil
used to draw the hexagon.

rt 45

fd 60

rt 45

fd 60

rt 45

fd 60

rt 45
fd 60

rt 45

fd 60

Finally, I explained to him the use of REPEAT command so that he will not get
confuse and type the command again and again. Here are the shapes that
were done by the pupil.

INSTRUCTIONS RESULTS

1 REPEAT 4 [FD 40 RT 90] SQUARE

REPEAT 2 [FD 30 RT 90 FD 15 RT 90]

2 RECTANGLE

3 REPEAT 3 [FD 60 RT 120] TRIANGLE

4 REPEAT 6 [FD 30 RT 60] HEXAGON

During this activity, the pupils knew that the square has 4 equal sides.
Therefore, by using the REPEAT command, she was able to typed ‘repeat 4’
which means 4 times followed by the command e.g. REPEAT 4 [FD 40 RT
90]. As for the rectangle, she knew that it has 2 opposite sides that were
equal, so she typed REPEAT 2 [FD 30 RT 90 FD 15 RT 90], for triangle she
typed REPEAT 3 [FD 60 RT 120] since triangle has 3 sides and for hexagon
she typed REPEAT 6 [FD 30 RT 60] since it has 6 equal sides.

As a conclusion, the pupil told me that the activity was fun and challenging
for him. He also said that it was easier to draw shapes using the REPEAT
command where he doesn’t have to type all the long commands. He wished
that he can learn more about it and try to draw other shapes next time. The
logo programming can be more fun once the pupils are familiar with the
program. Pupils can discover and make different kinds of shapes which
interested them such as star or even drawing a house or buildings using
different kinds of shapes. Moreover, they learnt about the features of each
shape: how many sides and angles.