Shapes Activity
Materials
- Shape cut-out sheets, pages 124-126 (1 set per student)
- Crayons (1 box per student)
- Scissors (1 per student)
- 12" x 18" construction paper (1 sheet per student)
- Glue sticks (1 per student)
- Poster with shape descriptions (made by teacher—as shown on page x)
- The completed project prepared before the lesson by the teacher—but not shown to the class until mid-way through the lesson
Introduction
The purpose of this lesson is to help students mentally organize 19 shape names. The lesson is basically a reinforcing lesson—it should not be taught until after students have had some exposure to most of the shape names mentioned in this lesson.
The lesson organizes the shapes into 3 distinct categories. For a moment, imagine how these 19 terms must seem to a child who has not yet organized them in his/her mind:
Not only does the vast number of terms create confusion, but so does the fact that many terms’ properties overlap. For instance, a square is a type of rectangle. A rectangle is a type of parallelogram. An equilateral triangle is also acute. An isosceles triangle can be either acute or obtuse. And all of them are polygons.
In order to have any chance of memorizing, recognizing, and understanding these terms, a class must create, and stick to, a basic organizational framework, which this lesson provides.
