Rebecca Powers

Mikayla Eshleman
MTH 221 Family Math Night project Part 1
Winter, 2015

P. Wells

My goals in assigning this project: The vast majority of students who take Math 221 plan to
teach elementary school or middle school. This project allows you to apply some of the
mathematical content and pedagogy that we have been studying with elementary students in an
engaging & meaningful setting.
In order to be confident working with the elementary students, it is important that you have a
deep understanding of the activity you plan to use, and how you can modify that activity as you
work with a range of different elementary school students. Part 1 of this project is a lesson plan
for your activity and will be completed prior to the Family Math Night experience. The lesson
plan will help you focus your attention on important aspects of your chosen activity and how it
fits within the CCSSM Standards for Mathematical Content and the Standards for Mathematical
Practice. It will also allow you to think carefully about how to modify the activity to meet the
needs of the students you are working with.
Instructions: Please type your answers (standard font and margins and 1.5 spacing). You will
turn in a draft version of the lesson plan on Monday, February 23, 2015. I will provide
comments on your draft and then you will have a chance to revise your work before submitting it
for a final assessment on Wednesday, March 11, 2015. You and your partner will work
collaboratively on this assignment.
Lesson Plan for Activity (Learning Targets T.5 and T.7*)

1. A detailed description of your activity so that I can easily see how you intend the activity to
proceed and I could, if needed, conduct the activity myself.
This activity works by incorporating flags from all over the world and seeing if
the children would be able to recognize the shapes made inside the flag. They will
be given crayons and pictures of the flags. They will use the crayons to color in the
shapes that they see and color in the rest of the flag so they can learn what the flag
actually looks like to also gain some knowledge for social studies.

2. A list of materials needed to conduct your activity. Please be specific.

Crayons or markers, paper with flag outlines (which we attached below), and
scissors.

3. A discussion of prior mathematical knowledge children need in order to engage in your

activity. Is your activity more appropriate for early elementary (K-2) or upper elementary
(3-5) and why?
Best for K-3 because the students are not too young or too old to understand
what shapes they are dealing with in this activity. If we were dealing with upper
elementary then the students might not think this activity is challenging enough for
them. The children for this activity will be able to comprehend what is being asked
and they will be able to visually see the shapes shown in the flags.

Rebecca Powers
Mikayla Eshleman

4. A detailed list of the specific CCSSM Standards for Mathematical Content met by your
activity. Be sure to list the specific standard(s) and the grade level of each standard.
Provide detailed evidence and use specific examples from your activity to support your
claims.
The children for this activity will be showing us they can complete the
standards shown below throughout this activity for Geometry:
Standard CCSS. Math. Content. K.G.A.2 Correctly name shapes
regardless of their orientations or overall size.
Standard CCSS. Math. Content. K.G.B.5 Make shapes in the world by
building shapes from components and drawing shapes.
Standard CCSS. Math. Content. 1.G.A.1 Distinguish between defining
attributes (triangles are closed and three sided) versus non-defining
attributes (color, orientation, overall size); build and draw shapes to possess
defining attributes.
Standard CCSS. Math. Content. 2.G.A.1 Recognize and draw shapes
having specified attributes, such as a given number of angles or a given
number of equal faces. Identify triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons,
hexagons, and cubes.
Standard CCSS. Math. Content. 3. G.A.1 Understand that shapes in
different categories (rhombuses, rectangles, and others) may share attributes
(having four sides), and that the shared attributes can define a larger
category (quadrilaterals). Recognize rhombuses, rectangles, and squares as
examples of quadrilaterals, and draw examples of quadrilaterals that do not
belong to any of these subcategories.
Standards for Social Studies:
Standards K-C2.0.1- Identify our countries flags as an important symbol of
the United States.
Standard G1- 1.3- Geographical Understanding

5. A detailed list of 2-3 specific CCSSM Standards for Mathematical Practice that children
will engage in as they participate in your activity. Provide detailed evidence and use
specific examples from your activity to support your claims.
Standard CCSS. Math. Practice. MP1 Make sense of problem and
persevere in solving them. Younger students might rely on using a
concrete object or picture to help conceptualize and solve a problem. They
are able to see important features and relationships, draw diagrams, and use
verbal descriptions.
The children would be verbally describing what they are seeing in the flags
from the world. They would be able to see important features on the flags
and notice any relationships to other shapes. And lastly, they would be
relying on pictures to solve a problem.

Rebecca Powers
Mikayla Eshleman
Standard CCSS.Math.Practice. MP7 Look for and make use of
structure. They might sort a collection of shapes according to how many
sides the shapes have. Older children have a clear distinction for what they
are looking for, where younger children notice details, but need to sort
through the problem.
The children would be sorting shapes based on their properties, so that they
can figure out what the shape is that they are dealing with. Older students
will verbally be able to say what the rules for shapes are, whereas younger
students might need a little help in how to figure out what those rules are.

6. Specific questions you plan to ask the children during the activity to engage them in talking
about mathematical concepts. The questions should focus on promoting growth in the
childrens conceptual understanding of the topic being explored and help you assess the
childrens mathematical knowledge.
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Questions for younger students:

Can you tell me what this shape is?
Can you find that shape anywhere in this flag?
What's the difference between this shape and this shape?
Questions for older students:
What shapes are in this flag?
Can you tell me the name of all these different shapes?
Do any of these shapes fit in the same group of shapes?
What makes this shape, this shape? What are some of its defining rules to figure out
if the shape is correct based on what you know?
Do you see any patterns in the flag?
Can you find a shape that has 2 sets of parallel sides?
Are there any shapes in this flag that has all congruent sides?
Can you find a shape that does not have a 90 degree angle inside the shape?

7. A detailed description of how you will modify the activity if it appears to be too challenging
for a child (a younger child or a child with special needs). How will the questions you ask
change? How will the activity itself change?
For younger students, they might have a hard time knowing differences
between shapes, so we would start the activity off by only showing the
children shapes and not even involving the flags yet. Only showing shapes
and seeing if they recognize any shapes by telling us what those shapes are.
After taking a look at those shapes, we would show them the flags and see if
they can tell us if they see any of the shapes we just looked at inside of the
flag. Even allow them to cut out the shapes in the flag to allow them to move
them around on top of another picture of the flag. Better to dissect the flag.
For older students, depending on what the children know to make it more
challenging for them, we would show them the flags and ask us to tell us
what the shape is, what a rule is for the shapes, and if the shape could

Rebecca Powers
Mikayla Eshleman

possibly be called something else. For example, if it is a quadrilateral, what

type of quadrilateral is it? And any of the other questions from question six.
For special needs, depending on the need of the child, we can modify the
activity. For blind students, we could by using flags that could be made with
tangrams or pattern blocks. The student could feel the flag and give the
answers. For hearing impaired students, we could have everything written
out and use more hand motions to help. For students with slower
comprehension skills, we could just ask them more in depth questions to
gain a better understanding of what is being asked, this way they could
participate and allow them to color and get involved in the activity, so that is
it more enjoyable for them.
8. A detailed description of how you will modify the activity if for a child who needs more of a
challenge. How will the questions you ask change? How will the activity itself change?
We would give them the harder questions. The worksheets would still be the
same but the questions and difficulty level would get harder. By asking
students harder and more in depth questions it will be more of a reach for
students who are at more of a challenging level. The good thing is that we
don't have to change much about our activity. The main idea is the same
besides the extension questions.
9. A discussion of how you will handle common management issues. For example, what will
you do if one child blurts out answers to every question or what will you do if a child is
passive, letting another child or a parent do all of the work? Obviously, you cant plan for
every contingency, but by addressing a few possibilities, you will have begun to think about
important management issues.
For students who blurt out every answer, they are obviously need more of a
challenge. We could split up and have different groups of students one group
with a higher level of understanding and one with a lower level of
understanding. If a student is shy and doesn't want to participate, we can try
and make it as appealing as possible to them. Ask them questions personally
and try to get the parents to understand that the activities are for the
children and not them. With that said, if children are feeling the need to do
either blurting out or being shy, we could give them the option of asking
them to choose a shape or describe a shape to their parent to see if they can
find the rule being asked or any patterns being shown. This way if we had
the students do this themselves, it would give them a chance to work one on
one with their parent and explore their thinking with what they know.

Rebecca Powers
Mikayla Eshleman

10. Attach copies of any needed materials for the activity (i.e. game board, cards, data
recording sheet)
We will be providing our own flags for the activity, but we wanted to show
the flags we would be involving into our lesson plan.
What flags would be best to incorporate:

Bosnia

Burundi

Cuba

Eritrea

Guyana

Jamaica

Rebecca Powers
Mikayla Eshleman

Kuwait

South Africa

Trinidad

The United States

Chile

Romanian

Rebecca Powers
Mikayla Eshleman

Namibia

Italy

Japan