MATH BY SORTING

The Objective - Sort two-dimensional shapes

The Materials -

• Math manipulative shapes (square, circle, triangle, octagon, trapezoid, and hexagon).
• Crayons
• White construction paper
• Brown paper bag
• Sorting mat

The Lesson - 

1. To start the lesson teacher willhold up a paper bag filled with shapes. Teacher will ask  the students to gues whats inside the bag.
2. Have students reach into the bag and pull out one shape at a time, naming the shape, and telling something about the shape.
3. Teacher will read aloud the following problem:
   " Sif has new stickers in the shapes of squares, triangles, circles, and rectangles. How can Sif choose to sort her new stickers onto 2 pages?"  
4. Give students an assortment of shapes to use to sort on the sorting map.
5. Teacher students the following questions: "How many vertices do the squares and rectangles have?  How many vertices do the triangles have? How many vertices do the circles have?"
6. Have student follow the directions: "Listen to my sorting rule. Sort the shapes into 0 verticesand more than 0 vertices."
7. Now sort the shapes into 3 vertices and not 3 vertices.
8. Now sort the shapes into 4 vertices and not 4 vertices.Draw shapes on the construction paper. 
9. Reread the orginal problem to the students and see  how they sort accepting reasonable sorting rules. 

The Wrap - Up - Have the students review the shapes and the vertices each shape has. Review how we can sort the shapes.

The Learning Strategies - This is a cooperative learning activity as the class completes this activity as a group and learns about sorting.