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Flat Shapes
Students explore flat shapes by describing, sorting, comparing, creating, and composing. They identify shapes in their world, describe their attributes and positions, count and compare quantities, and build foundations of geometric reasoning.
Math
Unit 4
Kindergarten
Unit Summary
In Unit 4, students build foundational geometric thinking by exploring, describing, sorting, comparing, creating, and composing flat shapes. Students explore shapes through their own ideas, experiences, and creativity, discovering that mathematics, and the classroom math community, values and celebrates many ways to notice, represent, and make sense of the world around them.
Building on the work of Unit 3, students use familiar attributes to describe and sort flat shapes. They identify shapes in real-world objects and pictures, describe their relative positions, and begin to develop increasingly precise mathematical language for describing their world and the shapes all around them. Students then compare shapes, create them using a variety of materials, and compose larger flat shapes from smaller ones.
Students apply new and existing geometric thinking in meaningful and creative ways as they design a space for their community using flat shapes and create artwork inspired by diverse artists as well as their own backgrounds and experiences. Through these explorations, students use appropriate tools strategically MP.5 Use appropriate tools strategically. and attend to precision MP.6 Attend to precision. as they make, describe, and revise their designs and artistic creations.
While the geometry standards are considered supporting and additional work in Kindergarten, the learning in Unit 4 is crucial to build foundations for geometric reasoning that students will develop throughout the elementary grades and beyond. In addition, students continue with the major work of Kindergarten by counting and comparing collections of shapes, connecting the number sense developed in earlier units to meaningful geometric contexts.
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Assessment
The following assessments accompany Unit 4.
Student Observational Spreadsheet
Print the Student Observational Spreadsheet to use as a formative tool to monitor the progress of students throughout the unit.
Post-Unit
Use the resources below to assess student understanding of the unit content and action plan for future units.
Unit Prep
Intellectual Prep
Intellectual Prep for All Units
- Read and annotate the "Unit Summary" and "Essential Understandings" portions 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. 113-118 on Geometry in The Progressions for the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics, paying particular attention to the Levels of geometric thinking on p.114.
- Read pp. 10-12 on Counting and Cardinality in The Progressions for the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics.
- Read pp. 6-8 on Standards for Mathematical Practice in the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.
Essential Understandings
- Describe, identify, sort, and compare flat shapes, including how they are alike and different, using observable (both defining and nondefining) attributes.
- Use positional language to describe where shapes are located in relation to other shapes and objects.
- Create, combine, and compose flat shapes in different ways using a variety of tools and materials.
- Count and compare quantities of shapes using mathematical language such as “more,” “fewer,” and “same”.
Materials
- K Real-World Shape Cards
- K Flat Shape Cards (1 set per pair of students)
- Attribute blocks (1 set per pair of students)
- Chart Paper (2 per class) – For recording student observations in Warm Up and Anchor Task 1
- Scissors (1 per student)
- Crayons (1 blue and 1 red per student)
- Anchor Chart
- The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (Viking, 1962) (1 per class)
- Optional: Shape Hunt Recording Sheet (1 per student) – Alternately may use whiteboard
- Optional: Markers (1 per student) – Alternately may use a dry erase marker with the whiteboard
- Optional: Photographs (1 set per pair of students) – These will ideally be photographs from the school, neighborhood, and/or students’ communities
- Plastic coffee stirrers (10 per pair of students and 10 for teacher) – These should be mixed length sets, with some full length, and others cut to half lengths or thirds. May alternately use straws.
- Playdough (1 per pair of students)
- Tray (1 per pair of students)
- Wikki Stix (2 per pair of students)
- Pipe cleaners (2 per pair of students)
- Popsicle sticks (4 per pair of students)
- Optional: AngLegs or prepared wooden skewers (1 set of 10 per pair of students)
- Pattern blocks (1 set per pair of students with parallelograms removed)
- Shape Design Recording Sheet (At least 1 per student)
- Bags of objects (1 per pair of students) – Bags ranging in size from 6-10 pattern blocks which should include 2-3 different shapes
- Sorting and Counting Recording Sheet (1 per student)
- City Shapes by Diana Murray (1 per class)
- Selected artworks (1 per class) – Use links in the lesson to see selected artworks by Kandinsky, Kusama, and Mahlangu
- Construction paper (1 per student) –18 in. x 12 in. size for creating artwork
- Glue stick (1 per student) – To be used as needed
- Dot stickers (1 sheet per student) – To be used as needed
Vocabulary and Models
Unit Vocabulary
circle
rectangle
square
triangle
To see all the vocabulary for Unit 4, view our Kindergarten Vocabulary Glossary.
Lesson Map
Topic A: Identify and Describe Flat Shapes
Topic B: Compare, Create, and Compose Flat Shapes
Common Core Standards
Key
Major Cluster
Supporting Cluster
Additional Cluster
Core Standards
Counting and Cardinality
Geometry
Standards for Mathematical Practice
Future Standards
Geometry
Operations and Algebraic Thinking
Standards for Mathematical Practice
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CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP1 — Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
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CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP2 — Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
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CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP3 — Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
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CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP4 — Model with mathematics.
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CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP5 — Use appropriate tools strategically.
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CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP6 — Attend to precision.
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CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP7 — Look for and make use of structure.
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CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP8 — Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
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