The Engineering Place (K-20 Outreach)

Shapes (K-2nd)

Lesson plan developed by Sarah Tudor

Objective: This activity was an introduction to 3-D objects.

Overview: Have them create shapes and 3-d objects using toothpicks and marshmallows. This can take as much time as you have. The students loved playing with the shapes. I had 45-minute blocks with 25 1st grade students. This was a math concept. The scientific process for the students was to use critical thinking to form the shapes.

Materials: Toothpicks and Marshmallows

Background Information: I obtained a book from the library that had great pictures of shapes and 3-d shapes: Shapes, by John J. Reiss.

Motivate! (Engage): When I walk into any classroom they ask me “what are we doing today.” I told them we are going to make shapes with marshmallows. They were really excited about the marshmallows.

Activity (Explore): The first thing the class did was a review of shapes. I used the book to show the pictures of shapes. Then we counted the sides together. I put them in groups on the carpet. I wanted them to be able to help each other out when they get stuck. They did work well together. We started with squares, triangles and rectangle. Then some students found out if they take a square and move the sides, it makes a diamond. They also found out that the rectangle could make a hexagon. We made a trapezoid, octagon, pentagon and then cubes and pyramids. I feel that students took a lot home with this lesson. They began to understand how the shapes relate to each other. I hope this helped the teachers when they start with 3-d shapes.

Safety Tips: I told them there were some rules they must follow.

1. They can not eat the marshmallows.
2. They need to be careful with the carpet and marshmallows.
3. The toothpicks are sharp, so be very careful with them.

Closure: Some students showed their work. I also showed many of the students’ work that had many different shapes within a shape. We cleaned up. I gave them a few clean marshmallows to eat. Then it was time for me to move on.

Assessment (Evaluation): I made sure that each student was able to make each shape and 3-d object. Before moving to the next shape I checked to see who was having problems. I feel the overall purpose of this was to give students a chance to work with their hands to help students to visualize shapes in space. I think that this was the best activity because it promoted critical thinking.

Connections: (Integration with Other Content Areas):This activity could be connected to social studies by making a boat from shapes. This boat could be a boat that Christopher Columbus sailed in. Then they could write a story explaining how Columbus came over here. For upper grades they could write what it was like on a boat. Middle-high school students could research this topic and build a model of this boat using math to make the boat to scale.

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