Angles and Pattern Blocks

Whew!  Am I glad end-of-year testing is over!  Can I get an Amen?  It just gets worse every year!  I feel so sorry for my kids...and their teacher.  My nerves are frazzled.  We received sympathy treats and notes from other teachers not having their name attached to any test during the week that did make me feel a bit better, but not much. :/

(Sympathy Treat/Notes) 

Then the morning of the math end-of-year Georgia Milestone Test, I walked in stressed to see this screensaver on my old desktop computer.  I almost cried.  I wanted to be there...where the test didn't matter.  

Enough of my whining about the test.  I want to share an angle activity I did before testing began.  Not that I had much time to spend on angles since Geometry is the last 4th grade math standard and there are way too many standards to teach, yet alone master.  (Oops!  Whining again!)  We did spend some time anyway on practicing angles using pattern blocks.  First, we learned the 4 types of angles...acute, right, obtuse, and straight.  It was more of a review since angles are also a 3rd grade standard.  
We reviewed our artifacts chart and our hand movements.  (We make all the angles with our hands, beginning with the benchmark, 90 degrees/right angle.)

One thing I made sure students remembered was that the length of the lines does not matter.  (We had already had a lesson where we broke toothpicks to various sizes and created angles.)  

I began the lesson by using a chart to show

 what a large angle made of two pattern 

blocks might look like.

Next, I modeled pattern blocks on the white board with jumbo pattern block magnets.  Students were allowed to find and point out the large angles made where the 2 pattern blocks joined.

Finally, the students received their own packet of pattern blocks and created their own large angles.  They only had to find one angle.  

My students seemed to enjoy the activity.  The only problem we had was at the beginning of the project.  Some students were not making angles where the 2 pattern blocks joined.  They were simply looking at any angle on one pattern block.  We got it taken care of though. :)

I hope everyone has a good week.  It won't be long now.  My county has 15 school days left! :)

Rotational Turns of Angles

I would like to share a mathematics lesson that my students worked on last week.  We had already discussed the type of angles we needed to know:  right, acute, obtuse, and straight.  Before using a protractor, my students needed to know how to measure an angle by rotating it around a circle.  I had them focus on the fraction standards we had already completed.  I put a magnetic circle fraction cut into 4ths on the board.  Each 1/4 was one of our benchmarks to use with rotation.  We then reviewed our angles and the measurements of each.  

After a quick review of angles, I modeled the 4 circles I wanted my students to draw in their interactive notebooks.

We modeled a 90 degree angle.  Our new name was "1/4 turn."  I compared the angle to a 1/4 piece of our fraction circle.  We stood up and demonstrated the turn.

We continued each circle, one at a time, using the 90 degree angle as a benchmark.  Each time we made another turn, the students would say it was one more  1/4 turn, which was another 90 degrees.

I also emphasized the inner curves.  For example, a 270 degree angle is close to 360 degree, which is one complete turn.  Depending on how the inner curve looks, this decides if an angle is a 90 degree turn or a 270 degree turn since an angle can be turned clockwise or counter-clockwise.

I also used examples that many kids are familiar with.  For example, we discussed skateboarding.  Many knew what a 180 and a 360 meant when skateboarding.

Next, each student received an Angle

 Rotation Mat and a trapezoid. 

 We practiced making rotational turns.  

Students recorded the turns in their interactive notebooks, while...

I modeled the turns on the whiteboard.

I feel my students understood the association 

with 90 degree turns.  We called rotations by the turn and also by the amount of degrees each turn was worth.  I want my kids ready for protractors and knowing these benchmark degrees of angles and what they look like will be most beneficial.

The Rotational Angle Mat is included in my angle rotation unit.  If you would like more information about the Rotational Angle Mat, please visit my TPT store by clicking on any picture or this link:  Angle Rotation Unit.  You will be taken directly to the unit! 

Have a great week!

New Blog Design

I'm back!  I have a new blog design and I am so excited to get everything set up!  I have been on Spring Break so the blog design being finished when I got back from vacation was awesome!  I don't know about anyone else but, I needed a week to relax!  I am not just reviewing for the upcoming end-of-year standardized test, I am still trying to finish my 4th grade math standards.  There are just so many of them!  It is almost next to impossible to teach them all, let alone have students "master" them.  It becomes more stressful each year!  I won't even mention that I just received 2 more new students right before I went on Spring Break.  Oh well, it will all be over soon.

Spring Break was great.  It was my 30th wedding anniversary and we went to Disney World.  (That's where we spent our Honeymoon.)  The first time we went in 1985, we found a really cheap hotel with dark paneled walls and a swimming pool that I was afraid to step into.  I saw the Grand Floridian on that trip and I told my husband that I was going to stay there some day.  We have spent several family vacations at Disney through the years, staying on Disney properties, but, never at the Floridian.  On this anniversary, we decided to do it!  I booked a room and was so excited to arrive.  It was beautiful.  However, to make my childhood dreams come true, when we went to check in, Disney had upgraded our room to the club level in the main building.  The club level is private and only has 9 rooms.  It comes with so many awesome perks that my husband had to drag me out of the hotel room, kicking and screaming each morning to go to the Disney parks. :)  One of my favorite perks was the room over-looked the Seven Seas Lagoon, and Cinderella's castle was right there in the background.  I could see the castle and the fireworks each night from my room. I will never be the same!  It was the most wonderful Disney visit EVER!  Thank you Disney World!

Tomorrow is going to be rough after being treated like a Princess for a week.  I just hope I can concentrate since I know I am also having a long observation this week...probably tomorrow. 

I hope everyone has a great week! 

My view during Spring Break while pinning! :) 

 Best Disney experience EVER!