Describing designs
http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?ID=L308
A lesson plan for grades 3–4 Mathematics
In this lesson, students create designs and describe them to classmates using fractional and geometric terms. The lesson provides a context for using the vocabulary terms “horizontal,” “vertical,” “square,” “rectangle,” “triangle,” “diagonal,” “one-half,” and “one-fourth.”
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
Mathematics (2004)
Grade 3
- Goal 1: Number and Operations - The learner will model, identify, and compute with whole numbers through 9,999.
- Objective 1.05: Use area or region models and set models of fractions to explore part-whole relationships.
- Represent fractions concretely and symbolically (halves, fourths, thirds, sixths, eighths).
- Compare and order fractions (halves, fourths, thirds, sixths, eighths) using models and benchmark numbers (zero, one-half, one); describe comparisons.
- Model and describe common equivalents, especially relationships among halves, fourths, and eighths, and thirds and sixths.
- Understand that the fractional relationships that occur between zero and one also occur between every two consecutive whole numbers.
- Understand and use mixed numbers and their equivalent fraction forms.
- Objective 1.05: Use area or region models and set models of fractions to explore part-whole relationships.
- Goal 3: Geometry - The learner will recognize and use basic geometric properties of two- and three-dimensional figures.
- Objective 3.01: Use appropriate vocabulary to compare, describe, and classify two- and three-dimensional figures.
Grade 4
- Goal 1: Number and Operations - The learner will read, write, model, and compute with non-negative rational numbers.
- Objective 1.03: Solve problems using models, diagrams, and reasoning about fractions and relationships among fractions involving halves, fourths, eighths, thirds, sixths, twelfths, fifths, tenths, hundredths, and mixed numbers.


