Murphy Elementary

My name is Katelyn Provo and I am working in a fifth grade classroom at Murphy elementary school. I work with a class of twenty two students, with eleven boys and elven girls. A few Fridays ago I prepared a lesson on shapes. I wanted to help the children look at the shapes they were learning in math in a different way. I set up stations and split the class into four groups. One station was molding various shapes out of playdough. I thought this would be a good way to get the children thinking about how to make shapes that are three d. At another station I had the children making shapes with their bodies and walking shape patterns out on the floor. At the final two stations the children were making tangrams. Which are pictures made up of seven shapes. I had the children cut the shapes out of construction paper and then make them into the pictures. The children had to think about measuring the shapes so they would be the correct size and about positioning the shapes in the correct way to make them fit into the picture. Overall I think this lesson was very successful. The children seemed to really enjoy it and I heard them talking a lot about what they learned in math and how to make the shapes in the various activities. I think it helped the children begin to look for shapes in the world around them and it gave them a chance to participate in hands on activities with shapes.