Math / 2nd Grade / Unit 6: Shapes and Telling Time

Shapes and Telling Time

Students reason with shapes and their attributes, partition shapes into equal shares and describe them, and extend their knowledge of time by reading and representing it to the nearest five minutes.

Math

Unit 6

2nd Grade

Unit Summary

Please Note: In March 2026, this unit and its lesson plans received a round of revisions including moving the work of customary measurement into Unit 3. Teachers should pay close attention as they intellectually prepare to account for the updated content.

In Unit 6, 2nd grade students add to their previous work on geometry and time. In Topic A, students reason about shapes and their attributes. Building off their geometry work of previous grades, students begin by identifying defining attributes and classifying flat, closed-sided polygons. Throughout the topic, students will have opportunities to sort, identify, and draw shapes based on their number of sides, angles, and other defining attributes. They will be introduced to the terms quadrilateral, pentagon, and hexagon and use them to classify and name shapes. As students build on their work of shapes, they also extend their work on partitioning shapes into equal shares and describing them. In 1st grade, students partitioned shapes into halves and quarters/fourths, and in 2nd grade, their work builds on that learning to partition rectangles and circles into thirds, as well. Students will be able to describe a whole of a partitioned shape as 2 halves, 3 thirds, or 4 fourths depending on the partition as they build their foundation for fraction work in 3rd grade.

To close the unit in Topic B, students relate their knowledge of partitioning circles into halves and quarters to the telling of time to the nearest half and quarter hours before further diving into telling time to the nearest 5-minute increment. In 1st grade, students told time to the nearest hour and half hour. Combined with their earlier work skip-counting by 5s, this will support students as they reason about the time shown on analog clocks and as they represent time on analog clock faces to the nearest 5 minutes. As student knowledge of telling time grows, they complete the unit by assigning a.m. and p.m. distinctions to time. This work forms the foundation for their third grade work with elapsed time.

Fishtank Plus for Math

Unlock features to optimize your prep time, plan engaging lessons, and monitor student progress.

Assessment

The following assessments accompany Unit 6.

Mid-Unit

Have students complete the Mid-Unit Assessment after Lesson 12.

Post-Unit

Use the resources below to assess student understanding of the unit content and action plan for future units.

Expanded Assessment Package

Use student data to drive instruction with an expanded suite of assessments. Unlock Mid-Unit Assessments and Answer Keys to help assess progress with unit content and inform your planning.

Unit Prep

Intellectual Prep

Suggestions for how to prepare to teach this unit

Intellectual Prep for All Units

Read and annotate "Unit Summary" and "Essential Understandings" portion of the unit plan.
Do all the Target Tasks and annotate them with the "Unit Summary" and "Essential Understandings" in mind.
Take the Post-Unit Assessment.

Unit-Specific Intellectual Prep

Read pp. 113–125 on Geometry in the Progressions.

Essential Understandings

The central mathematical concepts that students will come to understand in this unit

Shapes can be defined by their defining attributes that include the number of sides and angles.
A cube is a special solid shape composed of 6 square faces.
Circles and rectangles can be partitioned into equal halves, thirds, and fourths, and each partition can be described as one half, third, or fourth accordingly. The whole can be described as 2 halves, 3 thirds, and 4 fourths accordingly.
Using the position of the hour and minute hands, students can tell time to the nearest 5-minute interval by using the hour hand to locate the hour and the minute hand to skip-count by 5s the minutes that have passed.
Given particular context, a.m. or p.m. distinctions are given to time, as a.m. denotes events happening in the morning and p.m. denotes events happening in the afternoon and evening.

Vocabulary

Terms and notation that students learn or use in the unit

Unit Vocabulary

analog clock

angle

cube

digital clock

edge

face

hexagon

partition

pentagon

quadrilateral

quarter past

quarter till

thirds

To see all the vocabulary for Unit 6, view our 2nd Grade Vocabulary Glossary.

Materials

The materials, representations, and tools teachers and students will need for this unit

Optional: Straightedge (1 per student)
Optional: Square-sized paper (3 per student) — 8.5 x 8.5 in
Pattern blocks (at least 3 triangles and 3 squares per student)
Scissors (1 per student)
Ruler (1 per student)
Index cards (1 per student)
Optional: Geoboards (1 per student as needed)
Glue stick (1 per student)
Optional: Painter's tape (6 pieces per group)
Flat Shape Sort (1 per group)
Shape Sorting Template (1 per group)
Optional: Dot grid paper (1 per student as needed)
Whole-inch ruler (1 per student) — half-inch ruler or Quarter-inch ruler can be used
Mini marshmallows (8 per student)
Toothpicks (12 per student)
Optional: Sticky notes (6 per group)
Solid Shape Sort (1 per group)
Rectangle and Circle Partition Template (1 per student)
Crayons (5 per student) — yellow, green, blue, red, and orange
Teacher Gear Clock (1 for teacher)
Optional: Student Gear Clock (1 per student)
Clock Template (1 per student) — printed on cardstock
Brad (1 per student)
Student-made clock — these were constructed in Lesson 8 using the Clock Template
A Typical Day Time Map (1 per student)
Schedule Mishap Template (1 per student)
Optional: Chart Paper (1 per class) — for co-created anchor chart in Anchor Task 1
Scissors (1 per student)
Book: The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns (1 per teacher)
Ruler (whole inches and whole centimeters) (1 per student)
Optional: Rubber Bands (1 per student as needed)
Thousand Base Ten Cube (1 per group and 1 for teacher)
Optional: Crayons, colored pencils, or markers (2 different colors per student)

To see all the materials needed for this course, view our 2nd Grade Course Material Overview.

Unit Practice

Word Problems and Fluency Activities

Help students strengthen their application and fluency skills with daily word problem practice and content-aligned fluency activities.

Lesson Map

Topic A: Shapes and Partitions

Lesson

Identify and sort shapes by their defining attributes.

Standards

2.G.A.1

Lesson

Identify shapes and explain their defining attributes.

Standards

2.G.A.1

Lesson

Draw shapes based on defining attributes.

Standards

2.G.A.1

Lesson

Explore attributes of solid shapes and define attributes of cubes.

Standards

2.G.A.1

Lesson

Partition circles and rectangles into 2, 3, or 4 equal parts and describe the parts.

Standards

2.G.A.3

Lesson

Partition rectangles and squares in different ways, recognizing that equal shares of identical wholes can have different shapes but represent the same portion.

Standards

2.G.A.3

Lesson

Partition circles and rectangles into equal parts to describe a whole.

Standards

2.G.A.3

Topic B: Telling Time

Lesson

Tell time to the nearest half and quarter hour.

Standards

2.MD.C.7

Lesson

Tell time to the nearest 5 minutes.

Standards

2.MD.C.7

Lesson

Use a.m. and p.m. to describe time.

Standards

2.MD.C.7

Common Core Standards

Key

Major Cluster

Supporting Cluster

Additional Cluster

Core Standards

The content standards covered in this unit

Geometry

2.G.A.1 — Recognize and draw shapes having specified attributes, such as a given number of angles or a given number of equal faces. Identify triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, and cubes. Sizes are compared directly or visually, not compared by measuring.

Geometry

2.G.A.1 — Recognize and draw shapes having specified attributes, such as a given number of angles or a given number of equal faces. Identify triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, and cubes. Sizes are compared directly or visually, not compared by measuring.
2.G.A.3 — Partition circles and rectangles into two, three, or four equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, thirds, half of, a third of, etc., and describe the whole as two halves, three thirds, four fourths. Recognize that equal shares of identical wholes need not have the same shape.

Geometry

2.G.A.3 — Partition circles and rectangles into two, three, or four equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, thirds, half of, a third of, etc., and describe the whole as two halves, three thirds, four fourths. Recognize that equal shares of identical wholes need not have the same shape.

Measurement and Data

2.MD.A.1 — Measure the length of an object by selecting and using appropriate tools such as rulers, yardsticks, meter sticks, and measuring tapes.

Measurement and Data

2.MD.A.1 — Measure the length of an object by selecting and using appropriate tools such as rulers, yardsticks, meter sticks, and measuring tapes.
2.MD.A.2 — Measure the length of an object twice, using length units of different lengths for the two measurements; describe how the two measurements relate to the size of the unit chosen.

Measurement and Data

2.MD.A.2 — Measure the length of an object twice, using length units of different lengths for the two measurements; describe how the two measurements relate to the size of the unit chosen.
2.MD.A.3 — Estimate lengths using units of inches, feet, centimeters, and meters.

Measurement and Data

2.MD.A.3 — Estimate lengths using units of inches, feet, centimeters, and meters.
2.MD.B.5 — Use addition and subtraction within 100 to solve word problems involving lengths that are given in the same units, e.g., by using drawings (such as drawings of rulers) and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.

Measurement and Data

2.MD.B.5 — Use addition and subtraction within 100 to solve word problems involving lengths that are given in the same units, e.g., by using drawings (such as drawings of rulers) and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.
2.MD.C.7 — Tell and write time from analog and digital clocks to the nearest five minutes, using a.m. and p.m.

Measurement and Data

2.MD.C.7 — Tell and write time from analog and digital clocks to the nearest five minutes, using a.m. and p.m.
2.MD.D.9 — Generate measurement data by measuring lengths of several objects to the nearest whole unit, or by making repeated measurements of the same object. Show the measurements by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked off in whole-number units.

Measurement and Data

2.MD.D.9 — Generate measurement data by measuring lengths of several objects to the nearest whole unit, or by making repeated measurements of the same object. Show the measurements by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked off in whole-number units.

Foundational Standards

Standards covered in previous units or grades that are important background for the current unit

Geometry

1.G.A.1

Geometry

1.G.A.1 — Distinguish between defining attributes (e.g., triangles are closed and three-sided) versus non-defining attributes (e.g., color, orientation, overall size); build and draw shapes to possess defining attributes.
1.G.A.3

Geometry

1.G.A.3 — Partition circles and rectangles into two and four equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, fourths, and quarters, and use the phrases half of, fourth of, and quarter of. Describe the whole as two of, or four of the shares. Understand for these examples that decomposing into more equal shares creates smaller shares.

Measurement and Data

1.MD.A.2

Measurement and Data

1.MD.A.2 — Express the length of an object as a whole number of length units, by laying multiple copies of a shorter object (the length unit) end to end; understand that the length measurement of an object is the number of same-size length units that span it with no gaps or overlaps. Limit to contexts where the object being measured is spanned by a whole number of length units with no gaps or overlaps.
1.MD.B.3

Measurement and Data

1.MD.B.3 — Tell and write time in hours and half-hours using analog and digital clocks.

Operations and Algebraic Thinking

1.OA.A.1

Operations and Algebraic Thinking

1.OA.A.1 — Use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using objects, drawings, and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.

Future Standards

Standards in future grades or units that connect to the content in this unit

Measurement and Data

3.MD.A.2

Measurement and Data

3.MD.A.2 — Measure and estimate liquid volumes and masses of objects using standard units of grams (g), kilograms (kg), and liters (l). Add, subtract, multiply, or divide to solve one-step word problems involving masses or volumes that are given in the same units, e.g., by using drawings (such as a beaker with a measurement scale) to represent the problem. Excludes multiplicative comparison problems (problems involving notions of "times as much"; Excludes compound units such as cm³ and finding the geometric volume of a container.
3.MD.C.5

Measurement and Data

3.MD.C.5 — Recognize area as an attribute of plane figures and understand concepts of area measurement.
3.MD.C.6

Measurement and Data

3.MD.C.6 — Measure areas by counting unit squares (square cm, square m, square in, square ft, and improvised units).
4.MD.A.1

Measurement and Data

4.MD.A.1 — Know relative sizes of measurement units within one system of units including km, m, cm; kg, g; lb, oz.; l, ml; hr, min, sec. Within a single system of measurement, express measurements in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Record measurement equivalents in a two column table. For example, know that 1 ft is 12 times as long as 1 in. Express the length of a 4 ft snake as 48 in. Generate a conversion table for feet and inches listing the number pairs (1, 12), (2, 24), (3, 36), …

Number and Operations—Fractions

3.NF.A.1

Number and Operations—Fractions

3.NF.A.1 — Understand a fraction 1/b as the quantity formed by 1 part when a whole is partitioned into b equal parts; understand a fraction a/b as the quantity formed by a parts of size 1/b.

Standards for Mathematical Practice

CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP1 — Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP2 — Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP3 — Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP4 — Model with mathematics.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP5 — Use appropriate tools strategically.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP6 — Attend to precision.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP7 — Look for and make use of structure.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP8 — Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

We Handle Materials So You Can Focus on Students

We've got you covered with rigorous, relevant, and adaptable math lesson plans for free