TE 406: MATH LESSON PLAN

TEMPLATE
Your Name: Sarah Baker
Total Lesson Duration: 60 minutes
Grade: First

Date: March 16, 2016

Topic: Naming Shapes

Goal(s)

(What is the most important thing related to the math topic as envisioned in your
lesson plan that your students will learn in this lesson?)

Classify and define two-dimensional shapes including trapezoid,

rhombus, and a square as a special rectangle, based on defining
attributes of sides and corners.
Triangle: Shape with three sides/angles
Rectangle: Shape with four square corners, or right angles
Rhombus: Shape with four straight sides of equal length
Square: Special shape that is both a rectangle and a rhombus (shape
with four right angles and four sides of the same length)
Trapezoid: Shape with four straight sides and corners but they are not
all the same length and not all square corners
Hexagon: Shape with six straight sides
Note: Students may not use these exact definitions
(from the Eureka curriculum), but they should demonstrate an
understanding of these even if in kid-friendly language.
Materials & Resources Needed
Knowledge students may already have (term, definition, and/or image):
o Circle
o Hexagon
o Rectangle
o Square
o Triangle
Real-life pictures of the following shapes - 26 total, 4 or 5 of each
o Triangles
o Rectangles
o Rhombuses
o Squares
o Trapezoids
o Hexagons
Labels with shape names and definitions
Sequencing Group Work
(List how your students will be working throughout the different parts of your lesson,
for instance: Whole Group Pairs Whole Group. Explain how this sequence supports
any of the 5 practices to orchestrate math discussions.)

Whole group --> Partners --> Whole group

Sequencing the instruction in this way will help me to connect my
students responses. I will first draw on what they learned the previous
day and then ask them to work with the shapes they had started to
play with. They will form their own ideas about shapes and then share
with others to practice articulating their ideas and seeing multiple
perspectives. As my students explore the shapes and we discuss as a
class, they will be able to see other ideas about why a shape is an
example or nonexample, and how we can see them in different ways.
Academic, Social and Linguistic Support
(Provide 3 specific ways in which you will use academic, social, and linguistic
resources to support the learning of your students. Locate these ways across the
three parts of your lesson (Launch, Explore, Discuss). These supports should reflect
ideas from our course readings.)

Several of my students are on behavior plans. I will use the specific

signals and strategies my mentor teacher already has in place for these
(thumbs up/down, safe spot, voices quiet sign). I will also use familiar
language of voice levels, starfish students, and in-bounds bodies/voices
to promote positive behavior with all students.
I will differentiate the shapes that I give my students based on their
ability levels. Students stronger in math will receive the shapes with
more sides or varying side lengths for more of a challenge.
Group work is not something my students do every day so I will model
what I expect it to look like before asking them to do it. This is an
important social support so that my students can practice collaborating
and communicating successfully instead of focusing on independent
work.

LAUNCH, EXPLORE, & DISCUSS

Teacher: Today we are going to further explore the shapes you began
working with yesterday! Can someone remind me what you and Mrs.
Wizner talked about?
Student: We learned about attributes of shapes, like the number of
sides and corners that shapes can have. (If students do not use the
term attribute, scaffold them to provide the term or remind them of it.)
Teacher: We can sometimes see shapes in real-life objects! I have
some pictures here for you today to practice. Youre each going to get
one and they may or may not be things youve seen before. Thats
okay! Shapes are used in all sorts of things, not just math class. We are
going to decide what kind of attributes our shapes have an sort them
into groups. You might even know some of the shape names, already.

What are some kinds of things we can look at it in our shapes to tell
what ones might be alike? What are the attributes we should pay
special attention to?
Student: Number of sides, number of corners, side lengths, angles,
etc. (Lead them to these responses if they are not provided.)
Teacher: Exactly - the attributes you learned about yesterday! Now, as
I hand you your shape I want you to study it. I want you to focus on
your very own shape first so I should hear zero voices.
Students: (Receive shape from teacher and begin to study it silently.)
Teacher: Okay, now that youve really studied your shape. Now its
time to look at another shape. Turn and talk to tell your partner about
your shapes attributes and show it to them. If you agree with your
partner, give me a thumbs up. If you and your partner disagree, give
me a thumbs down. Its okay to disagree since were still learning
about shapes!
Students: (Turn and talk. Show with thumb whether they agree or
disagree with their partner.)
Teacher: (If there are students with thumbs down, ask them to share
their shape and have each partner explain their thinking. If not,
continue on with classification.) You might have heard shape names
before. Lots of times we can find different examples of the same type
of shape so were going to see if we can sort our shapes into groups!
(Direct question to a student with a triangle example.) Could you bring
your shape up here? What can you tell us about your shapes
attributes?
Student: (Standing in front of board holding shape.) It has three sides
and corners.
Teacher: Great observation! Give me a thumbs up if you agree.
Students: (Display thumbs up or down.)
Teacher: (Address any confusion with thumbs down. Tape shape to
board.) Who else has a shape that looks like this one? Raise your hand
if you think you have an example to go in this same group.
Students: (Raise hands.)
Teacher: (Call on a student with hand raised and ask them to come up

to the board. Repeat questions about attributes, thumbs up or down

responses, and taping to board for each shape. When no more
students think they have a shape for the group, move on to next
shape.)
Probing questions for this task might be:
What similarities do you see between the shapes you are all holding?
What differences do you see?
What did you learn about in math yesterday? (attributes) What kind of
attributes does your shape have?
Are there any shape names that you already know or have learned?

Possible grouping solutions:

By number of sides
Triangles
Quadrilaterals
Side length
Regular
Irregular
Specific shape name
Triangle
Rectangle
Rhombus
Square
Trapezoid
Hexagon
Examples vs. nonexamples
Straight sides and closed corners
Curved sides and open corners
Teacher: I love how we all worked together during this activity and I
heard lots of ideas about geometry and the shapes that were working
with. Lets discuss the groups we just came up with! (Based on the
groups formed, discuss the attributes of each shape and work towards
the names. Students may be able to provide the name or only a
description, with which the teacher can follow with the math term.)
By side length (regular/irregular):
Probing questions include:
What do you notice about the sides of each shape? (the length)
Is there a connection between the number of sides and how long they
are?
Extension questions include:
Are two shapes always the same if they have the same number of
sides but different side lengths? Can we say that they are special types
of a certain kind of shape?
Why would or why would we not want to make shapes with the same

side lengths?
By number of sides:
Probing questions:
What is a special word we can use for the number of sides? (attribute)
How many sides do you see on your shape?
Extension questions:
Are there any differences between the shapes you put in the same
group? Can we describe them in more detail?
When we build shapes, can we use any number of sides we want to?
By shape name:
Probing questions:
What do you know about compound words? (They are made up of two
smaller words.) What part do you look at first? (the last part) Do you
know a shape name that is a compound word? (triangle)
If you had to divide your groups even further, can you find even more
differences between your shapes? OR If you had to make your groups
even bigger, can you find more similarities between your shapes?
Extension questions:
Rectangles, rhombuses, squares, and trapezoids all have four sides.
How do we tell them apart?
What are some other shapes names that we do not have here? (ex.
Pentagon, circle, cube, diamond) How would you describe those
shapes?
By example vs. nonexample:
Probing questions:
Why did you say some of these shapes were nonexamples?
What does an example shape have to have? (straight sides, closed
corners)
Extension questions:
How could we change the nonexamples to make them examples?
Are there any other examples or nonexamples you can think of that
remind you of these shapes?
Teacher: Lets review our shapes one more time. When we see a
shape that has [attributes of shape], we know that we can call it a
[shape name] and other people will know what were talking about.
Great! Lets add that word to our vocabulary. (Repeat similar
conversation for all shapes.) Now that weve talked about different
ways to sort and name shapes, I think youre ready to work on your
own! Im looking for a starfish student who is giving me their full
attention as we look at our problem set. (Give out starfish. Show
problem set on document camera and read problems aloud.) Supply
helpers, please come see me to get the problem set for your tables.
(Distribute problem sets to table helpers.) Ill dismiss the straightest,
quietest row first! Who can sit up tall with an in-bounds body and
voice? (Dismiss rows, starting with the quietest.)

Students: (Move to desks and complete problem set.

Teacher: (Circulate to help as needed.)

Additional follow-up questions to ask if time:

Can one shape be fit more than one description? How do you know?
What is the best attribute to look at to figure out the shape? Is there
one?
Are there other types of shapes? (ex. open shapes, 3-D shapes)
Debate about definitions by providing more challenges and nonexamples:
Is an open shape still a triangle, square,
etc.? Why or why not?
What happens if we turn a shape upside
down? Is it still the same?
If the sides are curvy but connected, is it
still a triangle, square, etc.?
Are there any other shape names you know that we
didnt talk about today?