Super Shape Shifter

Students learn shapes and put them together to make other shapes.

A lesson plan for grade 1 Mathematics

By Becky Woolard

Learn more

Related pages

• In math, "elegant" means "cool"!: An elegant solution to a math problem is one that requires less time and work. Encouraging students to find such solutions will help them build number sense or numeracy.
• Math Fun: We have compiled some of our favorite mathematics instructional resources to help students develop a sense of numbers and how they are used by us everyday. Students will have fun practicing their skills and trying new problem-solving ideas.
• Beginning lesson on Coordinate Grids-First Quadrant: Students will investigate the first quadrant of the Cartesian coordinate system. They will use online activities developed by Shodor.org to identify the coordinates of points, or plot specific points. Then students will progress to an activity where they direct a robot through a mine field laid out on the coordinate plane. Permission has been granted for the use of the materials as part of the workshop - "Interactivate Your Bored Math Students" by Shodor Education Foundation, Inc.

Related topics

• Learn more about mathematics.

Help

Please read our disclaimer for lesson plans.

Legal

Learning outcomes

Students will:

• learn different shapes.
• use shapes to make other shapes.
• take a design and fill it in with pattern blocks.
• make a design several times and tell how many blocks it takes to make the design.
• use attribute blocks to trace around and make a shape man.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

7 days

Materials/resources

Pattern blocks of a circle, triangle, square, rectangle, octagon, hexagon, trapezoid, parallelogram.

Pages with printed pattern designs. I took large objects I found in the classroom and at home and I traced the shape on the pages.

Pencils, paper, crayons, scissors, brads

Attribute blocks

Literature books:

• Circles by Rose Griffiths
• Shapes by Henry Pluckrose
• The World Book of Shapes, Triangles and Pyramids by Sally Morgan
• The World of Shapes, Squares and Cubes by Sally Morgan
• The World of Shapes Circles and Spheres by Sally Morgan
• Take Off with Shapes by Sally Hewitt

Technology resources

Teacher made test using funbrain site. http://www.funbrain.com. (This is a free site where teachers can put online quizzes for their students to take via the computer.) An attached copy of this quiz is included in this lesson plan.
Computer hooked to TV or a projector with Internet access.

Pre-activities

The students should have a background of understanding about different kinds of shapes. Teacher can stress to students that we have shapes all around us and many things we see daily are made up of shapes. Teacher will have the students identify objects in a picture and the different shapes that they see within these pictures.

Activities

Day 1:

1. Teacher will introduce the shapes by reading Take Off with Shapes.
2. Teacher will hold up individual shapes and discuss each shape.
3. Students will color a paper showing circle, triangle, square and rectangle.
4. Teacher will use the computer hooked to a presentation center (LCD projector) or TV to show different shapes found on Kidspiration.

Day 2:

1. Teacher reads Circles and students find things in the room that is the shape of a circle.
2. Students discuss the characterists of a circle.
3. Teacher reads The World of Shapes: Circles and Spheres and discusses it with the students.
4. Students discuss characteristics of a sphere.

Day 3:

1. Teacher reads The World of Shapes: Squares and Cubes and discusses it with the students.
2. Students discuss the characteristics of cubes.
3. Teacher reads The World of Shapes: Triangles and Pyramids and discusses it with the students.

Day 4:

1. Students take attribute blocks and trace around them.
2. They will cut out the shapes and put them together with brads to make a shape man. First you have the triangle for the hat, a circle will make the head, eyes will be circles and the nose will be a triangle. You can use a crayon or oval to make the mouth. The neck will be made with a rectangle. The man’s body will be made of a square. He will have circles for the buttons. The arms will be made of long rectangles and the hands will be ovals. The legs will be made of long rectangles and the feet will be ovals.

Day 5:

1. Students take the pattern blocks and make a design with them. They will tell how many blocks it takes to make the designs. For example: If Sally made the face of a rabbit using one large circle for the head, two small circles for the eyes, two small triangles for the ears, and one small oval for the mouth how many large circles, small circles, triangles and ovals would she use if she made three of the rabbit faces?
2. Teacher will continue with this activity until students begin to show mastery when determining the number of each shape needed for each design.

Day 6:

1. Teacher will give students the activity sheets on Build a Shape Man (see attachments below: body parts 1,2,3, and 4) and let the students cut each shape out. Then students will put this shape man together using brads. They can color each one if they would like to do so.
2. Technology Integration - Students will use Kidspiration as a center activity to review shape and word. Students will click on Picture on the menu. They will write in Shapes in the First Idea oval. They will click on the middle triangle and find Math. Student clicks on the third triangle for the shapes. Students will click on the shape and put it on the screen. They will write the name of the shape under the picture. Click here

Assessment

• Assessment Quiz
• Teacher made test from Funbrain see site: http://www.funbrain.com or use the attached quiz
• Shape Man Art Project: Shape activity pages are attached below (see body parts attachments 1,2,3, and 4)
• Kidspiration Project on the computer Click here

Supplemental information

There are various books that your media may have that you could use to carry out this lesson plan. Examples of student work items in the classroom that may have the shape.

Attachments:

• Super Shape Shifter
• Body Parts 1
• Body Parts 2
• Body Parts 3
• Body Parts 4
• Shapes

Related websites

This site is used to create objects on the computer. It also allows students to manipulate pattern blocks on the computer. http://www.gingerbooth.com/shapegame.

Students can use a pattern grid to compare the pattern blocks. http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/Patterns/

This is the site we used for the test. http://www.funbrain.com

Comments

Our students enjoyed studying the shapes and finding different shapes in the classroom and school. They loved making the shape man and displaying them in the classroom.