Guess Who? Fun with Geometry

Who said geometry in the upper elementary grades can't be fun? Although the 4th and 5th grade standards get more complex with classifying shapes and putting them in hierarchies- you can still make it entertaining. 

Last year I stumbled upon this blog post, loved it, pinned it, and then forgot about it. I can’t tell you how many times I have done that! One of my New Year resolutions was to actually look through the ideas I’ve pinned/saved before taking the time to search for more and good thing I did! The archived Quadrilateral Quotes blog was rediscovered. I decided to take her amazing idea and add a little bit more depth to it. I started out by making my own quotes and quadrilaterals and letting the students match them on a giant anchor chart. 

I made sure to laminate them and use sticky tack because I had a hunch the students would be moving some things around and sure enough, they did.

After they matched the shape and description, I let them choose the polygon they wanted and create their own character. 

I made sure that they used all of the descriptive attributes such as; sets of, parallel sides, acute angles, perpendicular lines, etc. I didn’t want them describing a square by saying “I have four sides and four right angles.” We talked about how in fourth and fifth grade they should be using more expressive and specific attributes to describe shapes. This also happened to line up perfectly with language arts since they were working on using quotation marks and punctuation correctly.

It was wonderful to see their creative sides emerge in both the creation of the creature as well as their quotes. Some students even asked to use the protractors to measure the angles of their “creature” for a more accurate description! I placed them on my door and everyone passing by seems to love them. I can hear other students reading the quotes and guessing the shape.

 If you like this idea, check it out in my TpT store.

I also have task cards and activity sheets that correlate to these 4^th and 5^th grade geometry standards!