Summary
Three different activities reinforce the student's understanding of triangles.
Materials
Invitation to Learn
Which Triangle Is It?
Dribble, Shoot, Score
Trianglo
Additional Resources
Books
Triangles, by Esther Sarfatti; ISBN 978-1-60044-669-6
A Triangle For Adaora, by Ifeoma Onyefulu; ISBN 978-1-84507-738-9
Triangles, Seeing Triangles All Around Us, by Sarah L. Schuette; ISBN 0-7368-5063-5
Triangles around Town, by Nathan Olson; ISBN 978-0-7368-6373-5
Background for Teachers
Students need to understand that polygons are closed plane figures
made up of line segments. The attributes of polygons vary according to
the number of sides and types of angles they contain. Students need to
learn that prefixes indicate the number of sides of a polygons. Those
prefixes include the following: tri -- three, quad -- four, pent -- five, hex
-- six, and oct -- eight.
Intended Learning Outcomes
4. Communicate mathematical ideas and arguments coherently to peers,
teachers, and others using the precise language and notation of mathematics.
5. Connect mathematical ideas within mathematics, to other disciplines, and to
everyday experiences.
Instructional Procedures
Invitation to Learn
Students need to make a right, equilateral, and isosceles triangle by
using three pieces of chenille stems. Once the shapes are made, they
will be used as bubble wands. Predict which triangle will make bigger
bubbles. Place each wand into a soapy bubble solution and blow
bubbles out. Discuss which triangle worked out better for students.
Instructional Procedures
Which Triangle Is It?
- Cut the 9 plastic straws into the following segments: 1 straw
-- 4 inches, 5 straws -- 6 inches, 2 straws -- 7 inches, and keep
one at full length.
- All of the paper clips (9) need to be opened up.
- To make a right triangle, insert one bent end of each paper
clip into the following straw segments: 2 -- 7 inch straws and
the full length straw.
- To make an equilateral triangle, insert one bent end of each
paper clip into the following straw segments: 3 -- 6 inch
straws.
- To make an isosceles triangle, insert one bent end of each paper
clip into the following straw segments: 2 -- 6 inch straws and 1
-- 4 inch straw.
- Students then will trace each triangle into their math journals.
They need to indicate the length of each side and type of angles
it has. Finally, students need to write the name of the triangle
below the tracing. These triangles need to be placed in a pocket
that students have created inside of their math journals.
- Students will use the information now recorded in their math
journals to create a bar graph found on Which Triangle Is It?
They will indicate how many sides, equal sides, and types of
angles each triangle has. Use the color code for each bar found
on this worksheet.
Dribble, Shoot, Score
- Place several miniature basketball hoops around the
classroom.
- Divide students into groups and assign them an area around
one of the miniature basketball hoops.
- The basketball hoop will serve as one point of the triangle. Two
other students will represent the other two points of a triangle.
Groups will use a measuring tape to place these students at the
appropriate places to create a right, equilateral, and isosceles
triangle.
- After each triangle is created, students will connect yarn
between the basketball hoop and the two people. This will help
them visualize what these triangles look like.
- Students will cut out the basketball hoops found on Dribble,
Shoot, and Score page.
- Using the basketball hoop as a triangle point, students will
create their own right, equilateral, and isosceles triangles in
their math journals.
Trianglo
- Students are given a Trianglo card and 25 bingo chips.
- Teachers will show students a picture of a real world item that
contains some type of triangle in it. These triangles can either
be classified as right, isosceles, or equilateral.
- Students will determine which triangle it is and then place a
bingo chip on a square that contains that triangle's name.
- The student that has bingo chips placed in five squares straight
across, down, or diagonally calls out "trianglo".
Extensions
Curriculum Extensions/Adaptations/
Integration
- Buy a disposable camera for the class. Instruct students that
they will receive the camera for one night. On the night
that it is their turn students will take the camera home and
photograph a picture of a triangle in the real world. After each
student has had a turn then get the film developed. Using the
pictures they took, students will create a classroom book about
classifying triangles.
Family Connections
- Have students write an article on how to make a sandwich.
Students need to include how to cut the sandwich into one
of the triangles they have learned about. After they write the
article have students go home and actually do it. Students'
parents must report back to the teacher on how it went.
Assessment Plan
- Give students a sheet of drawn triangles. Have students
cut these shapes out. Once students cut the shapes have
them classify each triangle as either being right, isosceles, or
equilateral.
- Using a Zoome Tool Kit students need to create objects made
up of all triangles. Once their object is finished they must
classify the triangles found within it.
Bibliography
Research Basis
Boaler, J. (1998). "Open and Closed Mathematics: Student Experiences and Understandings."
Journal For Research in Mathematics Education. 29(1) 41-62.
It is difficult for students to transfer classroom-learned math to
situations in the real world. Teachers could help students overcome
this by using different teaching methods to conquer math concepts.
Math will become more exciting for students as they are given practical
and investigative assignments. Students are challenged as they learn
how to use their math knowledge in real world experiences.
Moyer, P. S. (2001). "Are We Having Fun Yet? How Teachers Use Manipulatives To Teach
Mathematics." Educational Studies in Mathematics. 47(2) 175-197.
It has been proven that math manipulatives benefit students.
Manipulatives need to be consistently and effectively used in the
classroom. They show representations of abstract math concepts to
our students. With the help of manipulatives, teachers also can make
connections between a student's newly acquired math knowledge to
those concepts once learned. It is up to the teacher to consistently
learn new ways to implement the manipulatives into daily math
instruction.
Created: 07/08/2008
Updated: 02/03/2018
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