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Subject: Visual Arts, Mathematics, Geometry, Process Skills
Grade: K-2

Brief Description

Students participate in hands-on activities to learn about the shapes in their environment.

Objectives

Students

• facilitate shape recognition in relation to their environment,
• identify a shape within a shape,
• discriminate geometric shapes from one another based on the number of sides and corners.

Keywords

trapezoid, rhombus, square, triangle

Materials Needed

• geometric tiles (teacher-made from teacher-selected materials or school-purchased) ???
• teacher-made chart showing labeled geometric shapes
• teacher-cut two-dimensional geometric shapes
• glue
• chart paper
• construction paper
• scissors
• markers
• crayons
• pencils
• student journals or writing paper

Lesson Plan

Motivation:
Give children geometric tiles, and let them make their own shapes. Ask children to explain the shapes they made and how many tiles they used. Also ask the children how they developed the ideas for their shapes.

Whole-Class Instruction:

1. Ask the children to identify what shapes they see inside the classroom. Tally their responses.
2. Follow-up the activity by asking the children to identify a shape within a shape, for example, small windows in a door are squares within a rectangle. Tally their responses.
3. Show students a chart with the drawings of geometric shapes to introduce new terms: rhombus, trapezoid, etc.

1. Distribute pre-cut two-dimensional geometric shapes, at least ten shapes per group.
2. Ask children to categorize the shapes.
3. Let children think about what categories are they going to use. Encourage discussion.
4. Elicit children's views on how they categorized the geometric shapes. Have children glue their categories of shapes onto chart paper so the other children can see their work.

1. Give each child four to six pre-cut geometric shapes and a sheet of construction paper. Provide glue, scissors, markers, and crayons.
2. Ask students to create another shape out of those shapes they have received from you. Encourage them to tie their shape awareness with what they see in their environment. For example, a child might make a boat using a trapezoid and three triangles. After students have glued the shapes onto the construction paper, they can create a background with makers or crayons.

Assessment

Evaluate children on their classroom discussion, cooperative learning abilities, shape awareness through artwork, and journal entries or written descriptions.

Lesson Plan Source

Submitted By

Raymundo V. De Jesus, Harriet Tubman Learning Center -- Public School 154M, New York, N.Y.

The submitter of our highlighted lesson received a $50 honorarium. See our guidelines to submit your lesson plan!