Exploring Shape with Felt

by Andrea Rogers and Jessica Wesaquate

Strand:

Shape and Space

Grade Level:

Primary

Objectives:

Students will be able to state the different shapes found in the tipi raising videos.
Students will be able to categorize the shapes found in the tipi-raising videos individually or in a partner group.

Students will be able to familiarize themselves with the assorted shapes found in the tipi through a memory activity.

Pre-requisite
learning:

brief understanding of categorizing, background information on the tipi, assorted shapes

Materials:

tipi-raising videos, felt, felt board, poster board, permanent marker, optional: Ziploc bags and construction paper

Set:

Have your students watch the tipi-raising clips and look out for the types of shapes they see in the video. Once they have finished watching the clips, make a web on the board and have students share what shapes they noticed in the clips.

Create the various shapes found in the tipi using felt and have the class sort the shapes by characteristics on the felt board. You can have students work in partners to sort their shapes and then do a comparison to how other groups may have sorted their shapes differently.

If you would like students to work in partner groups, you can set-up Ziploc bags with construction-paper cutouts of the assorted shapes.

Activity:

Students need to become familiarized with the assorted terms for the shapes found in the tipi. A way to do this is through memory. You can create the different shapes found in the tipi using poster board, label them in permanent marker and then create a large scale tipi on the chalkboard or bulletin board using the poster board pieces. Take pieces down and have students say the term of the shape that is missing.

Shapes found in the tipi (include, but are not limited to): circle (base of the tipi), triangles (side of the tipi), semi-circle (canvas laid out in video clip), and tetrahedron (while raising the tipi). The video clips will be helpful in creating and presenting this lesson.

Evaluation:

individual/peer rubric, anecdotal/observation record, math log/journal

Aboriginal Perspectives is supported by the University of Regina, the Imperial Oil Foundation, the Canadian Mathematical Society and the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences.