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Illustrative Mathematics
3-D Shape Sort
From the apple on your desk and the coffee cup in your hand, to the cabinets along the classroom wall, basic three-dimensional shapes are found everywhere in the world around us. Introduce young mathematicians to the these common figures...
Illustrative Mathematics
Shape Hunt Part 2
Shapes are everywhere in the world around us, from rectangular doors to the circular wheels of a car. The second lesson in this series opens the eyes of young mathematicians to this wonderful world of shapes as they search the classroom,...
Illustrative Mathematics
What Shape Am I?
Sharpen your pencil and grab a ruler, it's time to draw some quadrilaterals! Given the definition of a parallelogram, rectangle, and rhombus, learners draw examples and nonexamples of each figure. The three definitions are...
Teach Engineering
Connect the Dots: Isometric Drawing and Coded Plans
Individuals discover how to draw cubes on triangle-dot paper. They use cubes to build structures and draw corresponding isometric drawings on dot paper in the second lesson of the series of five. The activity also introduces the concept...
Noyce Foundation
Part and Whole
Now you'll never have trouble cutting a cake evenly again. Here is a set of five problems all about partitioning shapes into a given number of pieces and identifying the fractional amount of each piece. As learners progress through the...
Illustrative Mathematics
Make Your Own Puzzle
Puzzling over what geometry lesson to teach next? Look no further. This simple activity teaches young mathematicians how shapes can be decomposed into smaller figures, and how smaller figures can be assembled into larger shapes. To learn...
Illustrative Mathematics
The Geometry of Letters
Use the alphabet as a tool for teaching your class about geometric figures. Break apart capital letters into line segments and arcs. Classify angles as right, acute, or obtuse. Identify parallel and perpendicular lines. An excellent...
Teach Engineering
Let's Take a Spin: One-Axis Rotation
Investigate the effect of one-axis rotations on geometric figures. Scholars learn to use snap cubes and the right-hand rule to draw figures after rotations about the x-, y-, or z-axes. They try their hands at examples created by the...
PBS
Using Symmetry to Create Corporate Logos
Young mathematicians investigate the use of symmetry in graphic design. After first learning about reflection, translational, and rotational symmetry, children use this new knowledge to identify symmetry in letters of the...
Teach Engineering
New Perspectives: Two-Axis Rotation
Two-axis rotations ... twice the fun as one-axis rotations! The last installment of a five-part module teaches scholars how to conduct two-axis rotations. They create isometric drawings before and after the rotations.
K-5 Math Teaching Resources
Tangram Cutout
Challenge the spatial thinking of your young mathematicians with this printable tangram puzzle. Using different sized triangles, squares, and parallelograms, children must figure out how to fit all the shapes together to create a square.
Teach Engineering
What a Drag!
Stop and drop what is in your hand! Pupils investigate how form effects drag in the 12th part of a 22-part unit on aviation. Groups create equally weighted objects and determine which one falls the fastest by collecting data.
Illustrative Mathematics
Finding the Line of Symmetry
Can you find the line of symmetry? That's what your students will demonstrate by completing this worksheet. The task gets increasingly difficult as shapes are included that have one line of symmetry, no lines of symmetry, and multiple...
Teach Engineering
Build the Biggest Box
Boxing takes on a whole new meaning! The second installment of the three-part series has groups create lidless boxes from construction paper that can hold the most rice. After testing out their constructions, they build a new box....
Teach Engineering
Seeing All Sides: Orthographic Drawing
How can your draw three-dimensional figures on paper? The lesson shows pupils how to draw orthographic projections of three-dimensional figures composed of cubes. After viewing a PowerPoint presentation, they practice this skill with...
Mrs. Burgess
End of the Year Geometry Projects
Geometry students will be ecstatic about these engaging and enlightening end-of-the-year projects! Types of project ideas include interviewing a geometer, an ABCs of geometry poster, an engineering lab report, and origami work.
Curated OER
Glasses
Provide your class some practice with the dimensions of geometric figures. Here you have a set of three different-shaped, stemmed drinking glasses with diameters and heights provided. Math-minded individuals calculate the volume of each....
Illustrative Mathematics
Paper Clip
With minimal setup and maximum freedom, young geometers are encouraged to think outside the box on a seemingly simple application problem. Though the task seems simple, measuring a given paper clip and finding how many 10 meters can...
Noyce Foundation
Cubism
If cubism were a religion, would you follow it? Lower-level tasks focus primarily on counting the number cubes in a structure and relating the number to surface area. As learners progress to higher-level tasks, isometric drawings and...
101 Questions
Wedding Cake Ribbon
Customers often want ribbon around fancy cakes, but how does a baker know how much ribbon to buy? Scholars view a cake with multiple layers in different geometric shapes. They must figure the perimeter and circumference and add them...
American Museum of Natural History
Piecing It All Together
Archaeology digs are much like giant jigsaw puzzles. The artifacts found are often in pieces and scientists must reconstruct them. A hands-on activity lets young archaeologists experience this facet of the job as they create, smash, and...
Illustrative Mathematics
Representing Half of a Circle
Geometric shapes make great visual models for introducing young mathematicians to the concept of fractions. Looking at a series of four circles, students are asked to determine whether or not one half of each circle is shaded. To support...
Mrs. Burke's Math Page
The Amazing Pi Race
Add a sense of excitement to your math class with this race across the country. Using their knowledge of all things circular, young mathematicians work in pairs answering a series of pi-related word problems as they hop from one city to...
Illustrative Mathematics
Stained Glass
A complex question looking for the total cost of a stained glass window by calculating area and circumference of a circle. With detailed components, this activity will challenge your designers to figure out if they have enough money to...