Help your upper elementary students master classifying polygons with math foldables! They'll have a ton of fun AND learn a lot!
Geometry can be a lot of fun OR it can be really confusing. This post shares 10 ways to review attributes of geometric shapes to make it fun!
Learn how to teach quadrilaterals conceptually rather than having your students memorize the names of shapes. Tips for teaching quadrilaterals are included! Implement in your 4th grade or 5th grade math class today!
Free printable 5th grade minimalist math curriculum that covers the same breadth of difficulty and variety of problems without all the repetition.
Learn how to teach quadrilaterals conceptually rather than having your students memorize the names of shapes. Tips for teaching quadrilaterals are included! Implement in your 4th grade or 5th grade math class today!
Teaching volume in 5th grade? This post shares tips, strategies and FREE volume resources that focus on calculating the volume of rectangular prisms.
Help your upper elementary students master classifying polygons with math foldables! They'll have a ton of fun AND learn a lot!
Are you looking for a way to scaffold math vocabulary and concepts and make math more visual? In this post are photos of math word walls for elementary, middle and high school math along with photos of math classroom word walls that teachers have sent to me of their math classroom set up. Included in this post are links to free math word wall cards and discounted printable math word wall bundles for a variety of math topics. I am updating each math word wall to include a virtual option. Now in the files will be color, black and white and interactive digital math word wall options.
tw When it comes to math, geometry seems to be in a whole different league. Some kids fall in love with it instantly, while it seems challenging for other kids. One of the great things about geometry is that there are so many hands-on activities we can provide for our students, which makes it lots of fun! Here are some of my favorite geometry activities: 1. Start With Shapes I like to have students start with shapes they've known since they were tiny, like triangles, squares, and circles. We draw these on whiteboards as a whole class. Next we draw the more advanced shapes like pentagons, hexagons, octagons, trapezoids, and even the rhombus! This brings us to a discussion of polygons and we can classify shapes that way. Besides whiteboards, there are lots of ways for kids to work with shapes, like Popsicle sticks (which are also great to use to illustrate lines like parallel, intersecting, and perpendicular), LEGOS, Geoboards, and even clothespins which can be clipped together. 2. Marshmallow Geometry I like this activity because any time you add food, kids are all in! Using marshmallows and toothpicks, kids can make simple 2-D shapes, and also 3-D shapes. Plus, this activity is the perfect place to emphasize vertices since each time you add a marshmallow, you place it at a corner. If you have food allergies or school regulations which prohibit food, you can substitute the marshmallows for Play-Doh. 3. Use an Anchor Chart Once students have had lots of exploration time with shapes, it's time to discuss their attributes. I like to actually make this anchor chart with the kids' help. I explain how it will be organized, from the smallest number of sides to the greatest. We also notice patterns of sides and vertices as we create it. I do ask kids for examples of shapes, and sometimes they get really creative with this! 4. Go on a Shape Scavenger Hunt This is an activity that is great to do with some parent helpers if you have any. I like to send iPad cameras with each group, clipboards and pencils, and a record sheet. Kids record the shape that was found, the type of object it was, and where it was found. It's really fun to see what shapes they're able to find while walking around the school campus! 5. Incorporate Some Art I am a huge art proponent so I add art wherever it fits in. Geometry is a great time to do either geometric animals, robots, or people. I usually choose one of those categories but really you could make it a wide open project too! I shared another fun geometric art activity on a blog post I wrote called Incorporating Art in the Classroom. This one is from Literacy Loves Company. As a follow up to geometric lessons on lines and angles, I cut polygons from white construction paper for each child. I have kids use rulers and sharpies and follow my step by step directions of drawing lines and then finding obtuse angles, right angles, perpendicular lines, and so on. After the lesson is done, kids add color to these, making it a really fun art piece. 6. Add Some Kinesthetic Learning Kids need movement and it's easy to add some movement with this unit. For this activity, students will be on the floor working with a partner to make different kinds of lines (parallel, intersecting, and perpendicular), shapes, and angles (right, acute, and obtuse) using their bodies. An alternative is to have kids stand up and use their arms to illustrate these geometric concepts. Another kinesthetic activity is to gather Chinese jump ropes or packages of sewing elastic. If you use elastic, one package is enough for one small group of 5 - 6 kids. The idea is to have students use the elastic as a group to make the shapes you call out (types of triangles are especially good) or types of angles. Different kinds of lines can also be made if two groups work together. 7. Add Some Task Cards and Games Task cards are one of my go-to tools! Kids love the game-like format and I know that they're getting really focused learning on whatever math concept we're working on. I have used them as centers/stations, for whole class math time, for one on one, and as exit slips. If you'd like some pre-made math task cards specifically for geometry, click here; 3rd Grade Geometry Bundle 4th Grade Geometry Bundle 5th Grade Geometry Bundle 8. Read Mentor Text I love it when I can tie reading into math too! The books above are some of my favorite mentor texts for geometry. I love all of the visual examples included. 9. Use Music I just found these songs by Numberock on YouTube and they are perfect for this unit! Really great pictures and catchy tunes: Parallel, Perpendicular and Intersecting Lines Angles Types of Triangles 10. Practice Angles Seriously, next to long division, measuring angles is probably the most difficult math skill students will face in the elementary years! It doesn't help too that it is introduced in fourth grade in common core and then not even mentioned in 5th grade standards. Oh well! One activity that helps is to have kids use graph paper and write their first name in all capital block letters. Students can measure any angles created by the intersection of the letter's lines. Another favorite activity for practicing angles is to take tape and make different lines, which create angles on a desk, table, or even on sheets of butcher paper. Kids use protractors to measure angles and then write with expos (or markers on the butcher paper) right on the desks/tables! Great way to add some fun to this difficult concept! Hope you've found at least a few ideas you can use for your geometry unit! I did want to let you know that I have Math Task Card Bundles for every grade from 3rd - 5th. Each bundle has 30 sets of 32 task cards that cover ALL STANDARDS (CCSS) for those grades. I love prepping them at the beginning of the year and then grabbing whatever concept we're working on for some added practice. If you'd like to take a look: 3rd Grade Math Task Cards Bundle 4th Grade Math Task Cards Bundle 5th Grade Math Task Cards Bundle Thanks so much for stopping by! If you like this post, I would love it if you would pin it or share it with a teacher friend! For more ideas and strategies focused on Upper elementary, be sure to sign up for The Teacher Next Door's free email newsletter right HERE. I'd love to connect with you! Facebook Pinterest Instagram TpT Store
5 Activities to Teach Angles
Geometric Art
This set of printable geometry cards has both 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional shapes to use for building shapes. They show right on the cards how many toothpicks and marshmallows you will need to build the shape. Then there is a graphic to help you see what it will look like. The printable set comes with 10 2D cards and 12 3D cards.
An educational blog
Students will create a town map made of different geometric figures. They will demonstrate their knowledge of parallel and perpendicular lines, acute and obtuse angles, geometric shapes as well as many other geometric concepts through this creative and fun project. This project can be adapted to h...
Do you find it challenging to keep your 5th graders engaged and understanding complex math concepts like geometry and volume? Teaching these intricate topics
This free Geometry Bingo will help your students learn all about lines, rays, line segments, parallel lines, and perpendicular lines.
Can't you tell how much we just loooove alliteration?! This week we reviewed quadrilaterals but added in how to classify them based on side...
Once upon a time (in my first year of teaching), I taught a tessellation project to my 4th grade students. Just like any good fairy tale, at some point things took a turn for the worse. As great as some of the projects turned out, I was exhausted by the amount of hovering it required me to do as a teacher and left me yearning for a different project. But again, just like any good fairy tale, this story has a happy ending... After taking a 3 year break from tessellations, I have finally made my comeback with an awesome tessellation project for my 5th grade students. Yayyyy! I started this project by showing my students an awesome PowerPoint that I put together that explains exactly what a tessellation is, some famous examples from history, and then differentiates between the 3 major types of tessellations: translations, rotations, and reflections. After showing them the PowerPoint, I gave each of my tables a basket that contained a few 3"x3" pieces of tagboard, a written set of directions (in case students get confused), scissors, and tape. Then I showed them step-by-step how to create a translation tessellation piece using my document camera (see the directions to the left). **A trick that I used this time teaching was to have students draw their shape from one corner to the adjacent corner. That way they don't have to worry about lining up the cut-out piece directly across from the original cutout.. you just have to line it up on the side. (This sounds confusing.. just look at my visual below.) Once students finished creating their own pieces, I passed out large sheets of scrap paper and had them practice making tessellations with their piece. This was their opportunity to make sure that their piece was properly crafted and that it would work. This was also a great opportunity for me to be able to walk around and assist those that found that their piece wasn't working. Once they verified that their pattern piece would work, I asked them to turn their piece around and see if they could see something that they could make their shape into (some type of character or monster). Monsters are honestly the easiest to do because, as I explained to my students, you can take any type of blob shape and slap some eyes on it and call it a monster (just being real). :) Once my students knew what they were going to make their shape into, I gave them a sheet of 9"x9" white drawing paper to use for their final project. I advised my students to use the original edges of their tessellation piece to help them to line up their shape on their sheet of paper. Even though this cuts off part of the piece, it really does help to make sure that everything stays properly aligned. I also explained to them that just because you can't see the whole shape, doesn't mean that they shouldn't add the additional details they were planning to add for their character - they just need to add what they can see. Once their pencil drawing was done (including adding details), students were asked to outline everything with a sharpie marker, and then add color with either crayons or color sticks. Many of my students decided to take their tessellation patterns and make each shape into its own character in a series (instead of just repeating the same thing over and over). Doing that really helped to keep more of my kids engaged in finishing their project because it made it a little more creative and a little less repetitive. If you are interested in this lesson, I have an incredibly awesome package posted up in my store. Seriously.. it has EVERYTHING. Included in the package: 1. Tessellation PowerPoint: An introduction to what tessellations are, a brief history, M.C. Escher (with a link to a interview he did), his influences, his artwork, and the three main types of transformations used in making tessellations – translation, rotation, and reflections. This PowerPoint includes animated slides, which make it easier for students to visualize the shape’s movements. 2. Color Your Own Worksheets: Grid-filled pages that students can demonstrate how to draw translation, rotation, and reflection tessellations on. 3. Practicing Transformations Worksheet: Worksheet asks students to reflect specific shapes over horizontal and vertical axes, translate shapes, and rotate shapes. 4. Step-by-Step Direction Sheets: Three step-by-step instruction sheets with visuals showing how to create stencils for all three transformations. These instructions also match up with the included videos, which also demonstrate how to create them step-by-step. 5. Practice Tessellation Sheet: This page includes the base stencil for all three transformations shown in the videos and step-by-step sheets. 6. Transformation Videos: 3 videos demonstrating how to create a reflection tessellation, translation tessellation, and rotation tessellation (including how to do a graphite transfer or light table/window transfer for complex details). Also available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
Learn how to provide math intervention that will make an impact in your classroom while making your life easier!
Of all the areas of math, our 10-year-old isn't especially fond of geometry. To give him a little extra protractor practice, I thought up this angles game. Anytime he has the chance to beat me, his attitude is "bring it" so I knew this would pique his interest. What You Need to Play PDF of the Earth game board and angles cards Paper Protractor plastic sheet protectors (optional) Pencil (or if using sheet protectors, fine-tip dry-erase markers) Assembly Download the PDF free from Google Drive here. Print one Earth for each player (or team if you're doing this as a classroom activity). Print two or more copies of the angles cards. Cut out and shuffle. If you anticipate playing over and over, slide the Earth pictures into a plastic sheet protector. This make your game boards dry-erase. How to Play With the cards shuffled and placed faced down, each player takes a card on their turn and then lining up the protractor with the start line, draws in the angle stated on the card. On their next turn, the reference line becomes the line just drawn, instead of the start. The first player to get all around the world (i.e. past the start line) is declared the winner of the race! Read This math activity got us thinking about what life was like in different places across the globe. To further our understanding of cultures and time zones, we read a wonderful book that lead us on a journey that only took a single moment in time.
Add these 6 angle activities to teach acute, right, straight, and obtuse angles to prepare your students to identify different types of angles.
This week we started our geometry unit. I like to save geometry for second semester. It is a great reprieve from all of the multiplication and division practice! We started by learning about a point, line, ray, and line segment. I introduced each item with a movement, and then we practiced, and practiced, AND PRACTICED. My kiddos love taking turns being the “leader”. Angles Angles were next on the agenda. I introduced angles in a similar way. First, we used our arms to create the angles and to get out of our seats. Then we moved to our interactive notebook. After developing a definition for each angle as a class, the students wrote the definition and drew an example in their notebook. You can find the angles flip book HERE. We also did a fun name activity with angles. It was really nice outside that day. For some reason I thought it was a good idea to pull out the glitter...I was wrong. This glitter gives me anxiety! #alltheglitter I used the angles sort as a quick, informal assessment to see where my kiddos were before moving on to the next skill. Click HERE to grab the angle sort and 5 in a row game as a freebie from my tpt store.
When I first started teaching math in upper elementary, I really dreaded the geometry standards—specifically the ones about classifying polygons and creating hierarchies of shapes. For me personally, it was because I didn’t feel confident in my understanding of the standards and I didn’t really se
Thanks for all of your sweet comments about my last post! I made most of my geometry unit on my own. I will definitely be sharing some of the things, but I am thinking of finally taking the plunge …
Help your upper elementary students master classifying polygons with math foldables! They'll have a ton of fun AND learn a lot!
