Plot Builds Character: What Makes a Shape a Shape? Quadrilaterals and More...

This used to be one of my least favorite units. Here's why.

First, if students were struggling to grasp triangles, quadrilaterals are twice as difficult.

Second, there is a lot of vocabulary.

Third, there is a lot of memorizing of properties and multiple-step problems to solve.

Fourth...It is hard to find fun activities to spice up this unit. Or this used to be the case.

You have to understand that I teach a 90 minute class that spans 2 years for Juniors/Seniors in Special Education. Do the math on that one! I need ALL the fun activities I can find to make this unit stick with my students! Especially since they not only have deficits in math, but usually have bad learning habits, and have assured themselves they can't math (my student has turned math into a verb).

Thus, this year I have found a lot of different activities to make quadrilaterals more fun, and they seem to be handling the unit well so far.

Quadrilateral Mix and Match Student Examples

The first couple of days I began by determining what they knew. I used this as a DO NOW activity, and I asked them to write down all the shapes they could think of, then concentrate on all the four-sides shapes they could name/describe. ( I have some posters on the wall to help them).

Silent Teacher

This led to a discussion regarding what makes a shape a shape? and then eventually to the focus of the unit...four sided figures. I had students set up their Interactive Student Notebooks (herein referred to as ISNs) and from there I told them how the quadrilateral family tree came to be. My story was cornier than the one found in Mrs. E's blog, but I got the idea from her. Here is the quadrilateral flow chart I use as well. After I tell the story, I go through each shape's characteristics, and I have the students draw the shapes and symbols on the flow chart. This is then used to complete the following review activity: Quadrilateral Mix and Match. Students really liked this activity and enjoyed creating names for each of the members of the quadrilateral family. I again had them mark parallel sides, congruent angles, congruent sides, etc.

Domino Review Activity

In addition, I found a fabulously cheesy quadrilateral song remix on YouTube which I was reluctant to use, but it's pretty catchy. My husband and I found ourselves humming it a lot, so I figured corny or not, I would play it for my students and hope that some of the lyrics helped them to remember quadrilateral properties. I paired it with a a couple of domino review games: I made the first domino set using a template I found online and the second one I used from the link pasted. The graphics aren't great on the second domino game, but I just colored the master copy and then made color copies. I had students glue them onto a piece of construction paper. I also used a sometimes, always, never sorting activity.

All of those activities were great practice for setting a firm foundation for the quadrilateral unit. From these, we began to add numbers to the properties. My students can never get enough practice! All three of these activities worked well as purposeful practice and review especially during testing week and with all of my IEP meetings. Students can work together in groups, listen to music, and work purposefully while a substitute is in the room which is always key :) My students did need me to continually circulate the room and help them think through different ideas. Also, in regards to the domino activities, I allowed them to make up their own rules and connect them as they pleased as long as they were getting practice on the skill.

***Sounds stupid, but make sure you pair students who like to cut and glue with students who do not. I have more trouble getting students to cut and paste more than anything. I try to explain to them how important the physical arrangement of ideas is, but they still resist. So it helps to purposefully pair students.

I also have developed some of the following worksheets and activities. More to come!

Domino Quadrilateral Template