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Venn diagrams are a great way of visually comparing two or more characteristics or ideas. I remember being taught them in a rather stuffy, formal way that involved categorising numbers by their properties. While that is one application of Venn diagrams, I’ve found some ways of introducing the topic that familiarise students with the concept but let them have fun at the same time.

An Active Introduction

Let your students categorise themselves in a Venn diagram:

1. Clear a space or go to the hall or playground.
2. Mark out two overlapping circles on the ground using ropes or chalk or hoops.
3. Tell the students that one circle is for pupils with dark hair, the other is for those with blue eyes.
4. Let them sort out where they should stand.

Now you can discuss what the different parts of their diagram represent:

• those with dark hair and blue eyes
• those with dark hair but not blue eyes
• those with blue eyes but not dark hair
• those with neither trait.

Try it again with two or three circles. Use other categories, for example: can play an instrument, have a sister, wear glasses, walk to school, like football, etc.

If you want to use a slightly less active introduction, then display an empty Venn diagram on the whiteboard, tell pupils the categories and allow them to come to the front and add their initials in the appropriate place.

Venn Diagram Fun

I've created a flipchart containing two fun Venn diagrams for you to use with your classes. You can preview and download the flipchart by clicking here.

Slide 1: Superheroes

This slide has 10 superheroes to drag and drop into the correct position on the Venn diagram.

Ask students to make their own superheroes diagram using two or three categories from: cartoon, part of a team, masked, male, insignia.

Slide 2: Sports

This slide has 12 sports to drag and drop into the correct position on the Venn diagram. I’ve included stick and racket with bat. Let me know if you can think of a sport that uses a bat but no ball or net!

Ask students to make their own sports diagram using two or three categories from: team, Olympic, water, ball.

There are lots of examples of fun Venn diagrams on the Internet, but beware that some are obviously not suitable for students. Try these:

• Andrew Viner has written a whole book of Venn diagrams and other graphs based on pop hits, Venn That Tune (Hodder & Stoughton, 2008). For example, his version of He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother can be viewed at http://www.vennthattune.com/sample3.shtml.
• There’s a brilliant Venn diagram of Denzel Washington’s films, categorised by those in which he has a hat, facial hair and/or glasses. Just type ‘denzel venn diagram’ into Google.

If you introduce Venn diagrams early on in the maths classroom, then you lay the foundations for later number work. Try teaching highest common factor (HCF) and lowest common multiple (LCM) with Venn diagrams – they really help. They’re also particularly useful when you study probability. In fact, the topic has just reappeared in the specification for the new Linked Pair GCSEs in the UK.

I hope I’ve inspired you to have a go. Do let me know any successes that you’ve had with teaching this topic in your classroom.

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