I loved walking around and hearing the math talk! I did quite a bit of prompting and cuing to help them use their prior knowledge to explain their thinking–but overall it was GREAT to see that they were able to handle this task!
I wanted to give my students something concrete to continue their work with acute, right, obtuse, and straight angles, so it was time for some angle art! (Both of these activities are a part of my Amazing Angle Activities resource available HERE.)
I wanted students to show their understanding by folding paper strips into the different angle types. They spent some time arranging them on their page, had to “prove” to a classmate that they had all four angle times, then glued them down and made a key.
6. Provide lots of different opportunities for practice. I love these big cards printed on bright cardstock. They are easy for students to use and can also be used as an assessment tool. I use the sheet that is included to help practice estimation as well (This is also a part of my angle resource mentioned above).
Along the way, I did some formative assessment to check on student progress. (I made this into a freebie in my store if you want to grab it–just click the picture below!)
The next steps of our angle studies involved composing and decomposing angles. We started to tackle this that first day when we divided our circle…students started to see from the beginning that angles can be divided into other angles. Each day, we “played” with this idea a little bit more.
“If I divide a right angle into two angles and one angle is 34 degrees, how much is the other one?”
“If I divide a 180 degree angle into three equal angles, how big will each be?”
“What are three different ways to divide a 360 degree circle into 4 different angles?”
My students were loving these problems so I decided to come up with something more for our Angle Art wall…I simply told the students one fact. I told them that the small angle on a tan pattern block is exactly 30 degrees. From that point, I asked them to spend some time playing with pattern blocks and making discoveries. Students quickly began to make connections….the green pattern block had 3 equal angles of 60 degrees. The blue pattern block had two 60 degree angles and two 120 degree angles. Light bulbs were going off like crazy!
So I decided to push them a little bit. We have an Ellison machine with the die cuts for pattern blocks so I went and cut a bunch. I told the students to take 10-15 shapes and build a design of their choosing. When they finished, we went on a “hunt” for angles–by combining angles and looking for ways to “compose” 360 degree circles! They had so much fun–and now our hallway has even more math art for our friends to check out!
