Illustrative Mathematics
Counting Squares
Challenge young mathematicians' understanding of squares with this geometry puzzle. The task is simple, identify as many squares as possible in a 3x3 array. Allow learners to work independently or in pairs as they search for squares,...
Illustrative Mathematics
Grandfather Tang's Story
It's amazing the complex figures that can be made using only a few simple shapes. Following a class reading of the children's book Grandfather Tang's Story by Ann Tompert, young mathematicians use sets of tangrams to create models of the...
Perkins School for the Blind
Wheel of Fortune Game
Games are great for practicing any number of basic skills. Here is a set of wonderful instructions for making a braille version of a spinning game, where children win points by correctly reading/identifying the high-frequency words the...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
Geo Shapes
Invite your first graders to compose and decompose two and three-dimensional figures with this fun, hands-on lesson. They investigate and predict the results of putting together and taking apart two-dimensional shapes with rubber bands...
Curated OER
Recognizing 3D Shapes, Part 3
Do your first graders know the difference between cones and cylinders? Use this handy activity to help youngsters learn geometric shapes. With prisms, spheres, and pyramids, among others, this resource prompts pupils to identify each...
Curated OER
Recognizing 3-D Shapes, Part 2
Take your math lesson to another dimension with this lesson about 3-D shapes! First graders label cones, cylinders, pyramids, spheres, cubes, and prisms, and then count the number of each shape in a collective picture. A great way to...
Curated OER
Recognizing 3-Dimensional Shapes
Three-dimensional shapes are all around us; expose young geometers to this concept as they focus on identifying four figures: cube, prism, sphere, and pyramid. Learners begin by matching four objects to the shape each resembles (i.e. a...
Curated OER
2-Dimensional Shapes: Coloring Shapes
For beginners to color, number, and shape theory, this is a great way to solidify skills. They use a key at the top to determine which color (yellow, green, purple, or blue) to shade each shape (square, triangle, circle, and rectangle,...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Twisted Tangrams
Primary geometers create a picture using tangrams. In this geometry lesson, students read Grandfather Tang: A Tale Told with Tangrams, cut out their own tangrams, and choose a character from the story to make using their tangram pieces.
Ohio Department of Education
Describing and Creating Plane Figures - Grade One
Young mathematicians draw, create, and describe different shapes using triangles. They discuss attributes of the original and created shapes. Pupils classify the created shapes and draw and write in mathematics journals to communicate...
Curated OER
Telling Our Stories of Giving - Writing to Persuade
After identifying the parts of a persuasive piece of writing, young writers explore different prewriting activities for the persuasive essay. They have the option to write a news article, personal narrative, or persuasive essay to...
Curated OER
Spacemobiles
Aspiring astronauts construct a space vehicle using cylinders, cones, spheres, and rectangular prisms. This is an engaging method of learning about three-dimensional shapes. Note that the word cylinder is constantly misspelled in the...
Curated OER
Beef or Dairy?
Guernsey, Jersey, Holstein. Brangus, Charoloais, Herford. Here’s a truly cross-curricular resource that combines language arts, science, math, and visual arts activities as class members learn to distinguish between beef and dairy...
Curated OER
A Field of Beans
Beans, or legumes as they are sometimes called, are the topic for an integrated multi-subject lesson. Youngsters will read, write, observe, and research everything there is to know about beans. They read a bean story, conduct a bean...
Creative Educator
Tessellation Sensation
Geometers investigate patterns and symmetry, and examine the artwork of M.C. Escher on the Internet. They compare his style to the floor and ceiling tiles in the classroom. If you have ImageBlender™ software, you could have your class...