Quadrilaterals and Tinker Toys

Download The Assignment:
You may download the first assignment by clicking on the following link: Quadrilaterals and Tinker Toys
You may download the second assignment by clicking on the following link: Quadrilateral Notes

Objectives:
-Students will define parallelogram, square, rectangle, rhombus, trapezoid, isosceles trapezoid, and kite.
-Students will list all the special qualities of a parallelogram, square, rectangle, rhombus, trapezoid, isosceles trapezoid, and kite..

Introduction:
Most students can figure out for themselves the different properities of quadrilaterals, the only reason they don't is because they are never given the chance. This lesson allows students to work as a team to build understanding, make connections, and understand the different characteristics of quadrilaterals.

Setup:
Your students must be ready to work as a group and work on the problems the whole class is working on. Stress to them that this assignment will fail unless they only work on what you ask them to work on, that they pay attention to others when their is a classroom disscusion, and that they participate. They will get the right answer eventually, but stress that what you care about with this assignment is that they try.

Your students will be split up into groups of 3 or 4. They will work on one question together, discuss it as a class and then move ahead. You will repeat this until the first assignment is done. This may take one day but more than likely it will take about three days if you are really allowing the students to discuss and present what they have found.

Each group will be given several different tinker toys to help them construct the different quadrilaterals.

Allow the students as much or as little time as they need to fully understand the whys and hows behind what makes quadrilaterals work. Ask questions, and encourage them to present what they have discovered. Read over the assignment before class and prepare questions to ask while they work.

Don't assign this task as homework, encourage them to take their time, that is the main thing disscusion. If the class feels an incentive just to finish the assignment and that the disscusion isn't important they wont get anything out of it.

After the first assignment is completely done give the second assignment, quadrilateral notes. You may have them work on it anyway you want; however, to foster responsibility I make it an open notes quiz. This second assignment should take about 45-60 minutes to do.

Expected Student Behavior:
Students will be hesitant to work a slow pace at first, they will be hesitant to present; but if you are persistant, if you keep asking questions until you are satisfied with the students responses and understanding you will see the students change drastically. They will start to volunteer more, ask more questions, want to come to the board to show you what they are explaining, and will pay attention to others more earnestly.

Some students may want to not pay attention during presentation, but be as strict as you can to show them that this is the important part of the lesson, and they will get the hint.

Possible Class Discussion:
After the students are done with the assignment some possible ideas for class discussion are:
1)What are all the different types of parallelograms?

Accommodations:
You must be aware of what students will or will not work well together when making the groups..

Feedback:
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If you have a minute or two to spare and would like to share how this lesson went in your classroom or if you have any questions, think that the lesson plan could be clearer, find a typo or a mistake, or have any other great lesson plan ideas that you would like to share please e-mail us at: teacherresources@unpracticalmath.com