Cool and Warm Hands: Third Grade

Third Grade students created patterns with geometric shapes and cool/warm colors. To integrate math, students had to find either a square or circle that covered the most area. They traced that shape and then found the same shape but with less area. They traced the shape and then repeated this step until they got to the shape that covered the least area. Once their shapes were traced, they traced their handprint in the middle. They then colored the geometric shapes in a pattern of either warm or cool colors. They colored the handprint in the opposite set of colors. For display, I grouped them into warm and cool colors.

My Dream Bedroom: Area

To review area, the students designed their own dream bedroom. They first listed on a Circle Map furniture, toys, and other miscellaneous items they would love to have in their bedroom. They then drew those items, represented as squares and rectangles, on grid paper. After labeling the items, they measured the area, in squares, of each item and wrote sentences about their measurements. They then compared their items to one another according to their area.

Area Animals

The students created various animals on one inch grid paper using color tiles. They the colored their animal on another sheet of grid paper. They then paired up with another student to compare the area of their animal with the area of their partner's animal. They then recorded which animal covered the most space and which animal covered the least area.

Comparing Area

To practice comparing area, we created large rectangles and squares on the tile floor. The students were asked to all stand in the rectangle that they thought covered the least area. They quickly realized that they could all barely fit inside the rectangle. They then moved to the rectangle they thought had the largest area. They realized then that they had much more room to move around and were not as crowded. They then counted how many floor tiles each rectangle contained to confirm their findings of which covered the most and which covered the least area.

Introduction to Area

To introduce the concept of area to the students, they were each given crackers of various shapes and sizes to cover with cheese. As they covered the crackers we discussed that area measures how much space something covers. We also discussed which cracker required more cheese and which required less to cover.

Measuring Area

We had several lessons on how to measure area using non-standard units. One way was to measure the area of square rectangles using the tiles on the floor. We marked off various squares and square rectangles with painting tape and then counted how many tiles it took to cover that shape. To reinforce that area measures the amount of surface that is covered, the students covered crackers in spreadable cheese making sure to cover the entire area. They also made various squares and square rectangles out of color tiles. They then recreated those shapes on construction paper with paper color tiles. They then counted how many tiles it took to create the shape and recorded it. They also cut out various shapes and layered them on top of one another to see which one covered the most surface. We discussed that when you layered two objects, if you could still see the outside edges of one of the shapes or if the shape covered the other shapes completely, then it had a larger area. Last but not least, the students created squares and square rectangles out of Cheez-Its. They then went on a gallery walk to compare the area of the various shapes they created. After comparing the areas, then of course they ate them!

Fact Family Wreaths

To help the students understand related addition and subtraction problems, or fact families, they created Fact Family Wreaths with paper pattern blocks. The students chose between two different wreath patterns. These wreath patterns can be downloaded here from PreKinder and the pattern block templates can be downloaded here. After creating their wreath, they cut them out and glued them on the recording sheet. Teachers, you can download the recording sheet here for FREE. The students had to count how many green and red pattern blocks were needed to make their wreaths and then write the related math facts. We discussed how the wreaths with mostly green had to use more pattern blocks because they cover less area. Teachers, this is a great way to frontload the concept of measuring area. We also discussed that it takes three of the pattern blocks to make one red pattern block. Again, this is a good way to frontload a math concept - this time fractions.

Measuring Area with Color Tiles

To assess their understanding of area, I had the students create two seperate squares or rectangles using paper color tiles. The students then had to measure the area of their squares or rectangles. After measuring, they compared the two shapes to see which had the greatest and least area.

Area of a Foot

Today the students traced their shoe on one inch graphing paper. They then counted how much area in squares their shoes covered. Because their shoes did not always cover complete squares at the edges we had a mini-lesson on fractions by talking about putting two or three parts of a smaller square together to make a whole. After counting, the students wrote the area of their shoe on a t-chart on the whiteboard. As a group the students then ordered the areas from greatest to least on the board. To check their work, the students then ordered the shoe tracings on the floor in the order that they had written them on the board to see if it was truly from greatest to least. (Sorry there are not more pictures - we needed all hands today to count the squares!)