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Illustrative Mathematics

3-D Shape Sort

For Teachers K - 2nd Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Illustrative Mathematics

Make Your Own Puzzle

For Teachers K - 2nd Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Illustrative Mathematics

All vs. Only Some

For Teachers Pre-K - 2nd Standards
All shapes have certain defining attributes that set them apart from others. In order to understand this, young mathematicians look at examples and non-examples of triangles, rectangles, and squares, working as a whole class to create...
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Mrs. Burgess

End of the Year Geometry Projects

For Teachers 8th - 10th Standards
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. 
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Lesson Plan
Illustrative Mathematics

What is a Trapezoid? (Part 1)

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Challenge your class to construct a definition for trapezoids. Looking at four examples and four non-examples, students individually create definitions and use them to classify an unknown shape. Allow for small group and whole-class...
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Activity
K-5 Math Teaching Resources

Tangram Cutout

For Students K - 5th Standards
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.
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Lesson Plan
Illustrative Mathematics

Alike or Different Game

For Teachers K Standards
How are a circle and triangle alike? How are they different? These are the types of questions children will answer while playing this fun geometry game. Including a variety of conventional and unconventional shapes, this activity allows...
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Lesson Plan
Illustrative Mathematics

Overlapping Rectangle

For Teachers K - 3rd Standards
Challenge young mathematicians' ability to compose and decompose shapes with this fun geometry puzzle. The goal is simple, locate all of the rectangles shown in a picture of three overlapping rectangles. Perform this activity as a whole...
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Lesson Plan
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Illustrative Mathematics

The Geometry of Letters

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
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...
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Curated OER

Name That Shape

For Teachers K Standards
It can be so much fun to learn about new shapes! Kindergartners are shown a series of different shapes; each one is a different color, size, or orientation. They look at the shapes and discuss that no matter their color or size, a square...
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Teach Engineering

Stay in Shape

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
Using their knowledge of right triangles, pupils find out how far a ship is from a light house. Class members determine how far around the world a ship would be sailing at a constant speed.
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Lesson Plan
Illustrative Mathematics

Grandfather Tang's Story

For Teachers K - 2nd Standards
It's amazing the complex figures that can be made using only a few simple shapes. Following a class reading of the children's book Grandfather Tang's Story by Ann Tompert, young mathematicians use sets of tangrams to create models of the...
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Activity
Teach Engineering

Straw Bridges

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Pairs work as engineering teams to design and build model bridges from drinking straws and tape. In this third segment in a series of 10, teams compete in an attempt to build the strongest bridge. To help with the design, the groups...
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Lesson Plan
Illustrative Mathematics

Counting Squares

For Teachers K - 2nd Standards
Challenge young mathematicians' understanding of squares with this geometry puzzle. The task is simple, identify as many squares as possible in a 3x3 array. Allow learners to work independently or in pairs as they search for squares,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Glasses

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
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....
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Tile Patterns I: Octagons and Squares

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
This can be used as a critical thinking exercise in congruence or as a teaching tool when first introducing the concept. Four octagons are arranged in such a way that a square is formed in the middle. With this information, geometry...
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Illustrative Mathematics

Why Does SSS Work?

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
While it may seem incredibly obvious to the geometry student that congruent sides make congruent triangles, the proving of this by definition actually takes a bit of work. This exercise steps the class through this kind of proof by...
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Exploratorium

Making a Translation Tesselation

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Make masterful art using math. An interesting activity has learners create artwork involving tesselations. First they cut out a base shape from index cards, then they apply translations to complete their masterpieces.
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Activity
Mrs. Burke's Math Page

The Amazing Pi Race

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
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...
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Activity
PBS

Using Symmetry to Create Corporate Logos

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
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 alphabet and...
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Lesson Plan
Illustrative Mathematics

Comparing Snow Cones

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
Everyone wants to have the biggest snow cone possible, so would that be in cone-shaped cup or a more cylinder-style cup? Hungry geometry juniors compute the volume of each in this practical task.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Finding the Area of an Equilateral Triangle

For Teachers 9th - 11th Standards
The problem seems simple: find the area of the equilateral triangle whose sides are each length 1. In fact, this same problem is solved in 8th grade, addressing a different Common Core standard, using the formula for area of a triangle...
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Illustrative Mathematics

Hexagonal Pattern of Beehives

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Young geometers and biologists investigate the math of nature in an activity that is just the bee's knees. Participants will study the tessellations of hexagons in a beehive, along with the natural rationale behind the specific shape....
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Lesson Plan
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Illustrative Mathematics

Toilet Roll

For Teachers 9th - 11th Standards
Potty humor is always a big hit with the school-age crowd, and potty algebra takes this topic to a whole new level. Here the class develops a model that connects the dimensions (radii, paper thickness, and length of paper) of a common...

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