Samantha Akridge

3
rd
grade Geometry
2/10/13

Curriculum Aspects
Unit Topic: Geometry - Polygons

Lesson Plan Title: Parallelograms

Student Academic Standards:

Indiana State Standards:
MA.3.4.1 2000 Identify quadrilaterals as four-sided shapes.
MA.3.4.10 2000 Recognize geometric shapes and their properties in the
environment and specify their locations.

Common Core:
3.G.1 Understand that shapes in different categories (e.g., rhombuses, rectangles,
and others) may share attributes (e.g., having four sides), and that the shared
attributes can define a larger category (e.g., quadrilaterals). Recognize rhombuses,
rectangles, and squares as examples of quadrilaterals, and draw examples of
quadrilaterals that do not belong to any of these subcategories.

Content Covered:
This lesson will cover that:
Parallelograms are quadrilaterals with exactly 2 pairs of parallel and
congruent sides
All parallelograms are quadrilaterals (because they have four sides) but not
all quadrilaterals are parallelograms
Squares and rectangles are parallelograms
Parallelograms are all around in our environment

Lesson Rationale:
This lesson is related to the content knowledge required by the standards because
parallelograms are a category of quadrilaterals. Discussing parallelograms will give
students a chance to review and discuss properties like parallel lines and congruent
lines. In addition, they will gain experience recognizing and classifying different
types of quadrilaterals.

Instructional Overview
Introduction (~5 min):
We will start off our lesson with a search of the room for quadrilaterals,
parallel lines, and congruent lines or shapes. These are all concepts that
students are familiar with and will be using during the rest of the lesson.
This activity should be a good review and warm up for the lesson. As
students name objects I will ask how they know that it is an example of each
Samantha Akridge
3
rd
grade Geometry
2/10/13

concept so that we can restate the definition before we start the lesson.

Procedures and Activities:
(~5 min) Intro of parallelograms
o I will introduce that the shape we are using today uses all of the
concepts we just talked about: Parallelograms
o I will introduce the definition of a parallelogram: A quadrilateral with
exactly 2 pairs of parallel and congruent sides (I will point out that
these are called PROPERTIES)
o We will draw parallelograms together I will draw on the Smart
board and students will draw on their white boards
We will start by drawing 2 parallel lines (discuss how we know
they are parallel)
Draw 2 parallel lines that intersect these (shape is now drawn
and we will discuss how we can see that opposite sides are
congruent)
(~3 min)Venn diagram directions I will show the Venn diagram that we
will be using on the board and we will go over the directions.
o Each student will get a Venn diagram and shapes to cut out
o You should cut out your shapes first
o Next, you should work on deciding where your shape goes on your
Venn diagram. It can be a quadrilateral, a parallelogram, both a
quadrilateral AND a parallelogram, OR it can be none.
o You may discuss where each shape goes with the person across from
you (or in a group of three if no one is across from you)
o DO NOT glue anything until we go over it as a class
(~10 min) Students will be given worksheets and time to work on classifying
their shapes with their partner.
(~10 min) Next we will go over our Venn Diagrams as a class and discuss
why each shape is where on the sheet. I will point out that
o The square is a parallelogram and quadrilateral
o The rectangle is a parallelogram and a quadrilateral
o There are NO parallelograms that are not quadrilaterals, because it is
part of the definition.

Checks for Understanding:
During the Venn diagram activity, I will walk around to see if there are any
shapes that students are struggling to classify, or not classifying correctly. I
will be sure to make these more in depth discussion points as we go over it
together.
Exit Slip the exit slip will let me know at the end of the lesson if students
understand the properties of a parallelogram and can use them to identify
the shape. This will help me see which parts of the lesson may need to be
retaught to whom.
Samantha Akridge
3
rd
grade Geometry
2/10/13

Conclusion:
Exit Slip Find a parallelogram in the room. Write down what it is and what
properties tell you that it is a parallelogram
Geometry books geometry booklets will be distributed and students will fill
out the definition of a parallelogram and draw an example (or a few) for their
reference later on.
o If time allows we might also add in definitions of acute, right and
obtuse triangles, which we learned last week.
Follow-Up:
Written Practice HW independent practice and assessment
Possibly a geometry worksheet if assessment suggests we may need to have
more independent practice of the skills
Math assessment given every 5 math lessons final assessment
Materials:
Quadrilateral and Parallelogram Venn Diagram
Shape Page for Venn Diagram
Smart Board
White boards and markers for students
Half sheets of paper for exit slips.
Geometry Booklets
Specific Differentiation Aspects
Technology Aspects: The smart board will be used during this lesson to draw
examples of parallel lines, congruent lines, quadrilaterals and parallelograms. In
addition, we will use it to go over the Venn Diagram that we will be doing during the
lesson by using a digital version of the worksheet.

Classroom Management Aspects: I believe that the best way to prevent problems
with behavior during this lesson would be to make directions and expectations very
clear. Especially since I need directions to be followed for activities to be successful,
I want to make sure they are established before I distribute materials. I think that
this would eliminate a lot of behavior issues that would disrupt the lesson (such as
students starting on work during directions or without knowing what the activity
is). I only plan to use groups once during the lesson, and their partners are already
seated across for them for this activity.

Educational Psychology Aspects: This lesson is developmentally appropriate
because it builds off of students previous knowledge of geometry concepts. The
students are already familiar with the concepts of parallel lines, congruence and
quadrilaterals that are essential to understanding and classifying this new shape.
The lesson will be engaging because it has hands on elements (sorting and drawing
shapes) as well as the opportunity to discuss information and use visuals. This will
help reach visual, kinesthetic, oral and auditory learners. In addition, I know that
this particular class enjoys looking for geometry concepts in the room we have
Samantha Akridge
3
rd
grade Geometry
2/10/13

done it before with angles and they obviously enjoyed it (extremely high class
participation).

ELL Aspects: N/A all students are native English speakers

High Ability Aspects: If students seem to exhibit mastery of the material already I
might ask them to draw more parallelograms or non-parallelogram shapes to add to
our Venn diagram. I also might point out that a square can have 5 different possible
classifications - can they determine them all on the back of their page? (Square,
rectangle, parallelogram, quadrilateral, polygon They havent learned rhombus yet
to my knowledge)

Disability or At-Risk Aspects: If students are struggling with concepts a support is
built in, in that they can do the first activity with the help of a partner and that we
will be going over the information. If students continue to struggle with the concept,
I will tell them to be sure to look at the shapes that we put in the Parallelogram
circle on our Venn diagram. They can look around the room for shapes like the ones
we used as an example. They may also take some extra time to do this because we
will be using the Geometry book several more times in the coming weeks and they
will have time to catch up with filling that out. In addition, in the coming lessons,
they will be able to refer back to this book to help them remember shapes and
determine classifications.