Unit 3 - Make a Shape, Fill a Hexagon
This geometry unit focuses on two-dimensional shapes. In this unit, students look for and identify two-dimensional shapes in their environment and make a Class Book of Shapes and a Shape Mural using geometric shapes to depict the objects they see. They look carefully at the attributes of shapes as they describe, identify, compare, construct, and represent 2-D shapes. Students also combine shapes to make new shapes (e.g., 2 trapezoids make a hexagon).
Math Words and Ideas
Investigations Games
Throughout this unit, students will be working toward these goals:
Related Activities to Try at Home
Shape Hunt Shapes are everywhere. Talk with your child about the shapes you see every day. Together, you can look at everything from the shapes of buildings in your neighborhood to the shapes of boxes and cans in the supermarket. Sometimes you can include descriptions of shapes in what you say.
For example, “Look at that part of the building shaped like a trapezoid.” At other times, you can ask your child to look for specific shapes: “See how many things you can find that are triangles, while we walk down the street.”
Making Shapes Making shapes is a great way to learn about them. At home, your child might use clay, drinking straws, or a loop of yarn or rope to make different shapes.
Ask your child, “Can you make a shape with three sides?. . . Do you know what that shape is called?” Or, you can make different shapes and ask your child to name and describe them.
Drawing Shapes Your child might like to design his or her own shape book, picture, or mural using many different shapes that he or she has drawn or cut from old
magazines.
Seeing Shapes Inside Shapes Encourage your child to look for patterns or designs made from different shapes.
For example, ask: “Can you find squares on the floor (or wallpaper or clothing)?” or “Are there any patterns made from triangles?” or “Do you see any hexagons?”
Math and Literature
Blackstone, Stella. Ship Shapes.
Burns, Marilyn. The Greedy Triangle.
Dodds, Dayle Ann. The Shape of Things.
MacDonald, Suse. Shape by Shape.
Onyefulu, Ifeoma. A Triangle for Adaora: An African Book of Shapes.
Schachner, Judy. Skippyjon Jones Shape Up.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Museum Shapes.
Thong, Roseanne. Round is a Mooncake.