Sample Lesson Plan

Sample: School Age Lesson Plan Template

Part 1: The Plan

Standards:

• CCSS.Math.Content.K.G.B.5
  • Model shapes in the world by building shapes from components (e.g., sticks and clay balls) and drawing shapes.
• CCSS.Math.Content.K.G.B.4
  • Analyze and compare two- and three-dimensional shapes, in different sizes and orientations, using informal language to describe their similarities, differences, parts (e.g., number of sides and vertices/”corners”) and other attributes (e.g., having sides of equal length).

Objective

The student will create triangles with 3 sides and 3 corners, but with different length sides using straws and playdough.

Set Up and Materials needed

• Book: Triangle (The Shapes Trilogy) by Mac Barnett
• Laminated poster with Triangle shaped pictures:
  • Pizza slice
  • Watermelon wedge
  • Roof
  • Tent
  • Hanger
  • Half of a sandwich
•  Laminated poster with different shaped triangles facing different directions
• Straws cut into different lengths
• Playdough
• Trays arranged with a ball of playdough and 21 straws.
  • One tray per student.

Key Terms

• Triangle
• Sides
• Corners

Activity Procedure

Anticipatory Set:

• Read Triangle (The Shapes Trilogy) aloud to the class.
• Ask: Why couldn’t the square fit through the Triangle’s door?  How is a square different from a triangle?
• Prompt students until they state that a triangle has 3 sides and 3 corners.

Direct Instruction: 

1. Present Poster 1 with the pictures in a triangle shape.
   • Use a dry erase marker to draw a triangle over the first picture.
2. Say:
   • The pizza slice is in the shape of a triangle.
   • How many sides did I draw?
   • How many corners can you count?
   • Have a child come up and count the sides and corners.
3. Repeat with the other pictures.
4. Present Poster 2:  Ask:
   • Are these all triangles?
   • How do you know?
5. Have children come up and count sides and corners for each.

Guided Practice: 

1. Students are sitting on a carpet in a circle.
2. Take out a tray with playdough and different size straws.
3. Say: Let me show you how I can make a triangle with these shapes.
4. Model carefully adding a small ball of playdough for each of the three corners.
5. Hold up the triangle and ask: Is this a triangle?
6. Turn it in a different direction and ask: Is it still a triangle?
7. Give students a tray with straws and playdough.
8. Ask them to get three straws of the same size and make a triangle.
9. Ask them to get two straws of the same size and choose a 3rd to make a triangle.
10. Ask them to get 3 straws of different sizes to make a triangle.

Independent Practice:

Give students time to make different triangles until all of their straws are used.

Closure:

1. Put a poster size piece of paper in the middle of the circle
2. Ask students, one at a time, to bring their favorite triangle that they made and lay it carefully on the poster paper.
3. Each time ask: Does your triangle have 3 sides and 3 corners?
4. When all triangles on the poster paper, prompt students to recognize that triangles sometimes look different and are facing different directions but they all have 3 sides and 3 corners.

Assessment

Students will be given a page of quadrilaterals and triangles of different sizes.  Students will be able to point to all of the triangles.

Modifications

Create a poster showing the steps for creating triangles with straws and playdough.  Have models of 3 equal sides, 2 equal sides and no equal sides.

Extensions

• Students can make triangles with bigger materials such as yard sticks or pvc pipes.
• Students can trace triangle shapes, overlap them and color new triangles formed while doing so.

Guided review of the Sample Lesson Plan

• Do the two standards go together?
• Read the objective statement and the assessment.  Are they aligned?
• Read the materials list.  How might a teacher prepare these materials beforehand?
• Read the procedure.  Can you visualize the lesson and recreate it?
• Read the modifications and extensions.  Did this lesson lead to flexibility for diverse learners?

Resources and References

1. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. (2022). Mathematics Standards. https://www.thecorestandards.org/Math/