Monday, January 23, 2017

We are in Good Shape!

One of my favorite units to teach in First Grade is our unit on shapes and fractions. We started this unit when we returned from winter break. The unit begins with students understanding attributes of 2-D shapes. It then progresses to 3-D shapes. Instead of hearing a list of the attributes of a 3-D shape…we built them instead! 






We used three supplies: tooth picks, straws and playdoh. Each group was responsible for creating a 3-D shape together as a team. The playdoh was used to connect the toothpicks and straws. The students also learned at the end of this lesson that the playdoh served as the corners of each object.








This was not as easy as it looks! We really had to think about the placement of each item. We tried ideas, they didn’t work, and then we regrouped and tried another way instead. It was great to see our shapes built at the end! Another way that we thought about these shapes was by thinking of real life objects that these shapes represent. For example, a tissue box is a rectangular prism, a dice is a cube, a basketball is a sphere, and there are so many more! We had a great time looking at the world around us with our eyes on the lookout for shapes!

 
 

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