WARNING! There's a Blizzard of Polygons!

The forcasters may not have called for any snowstorms in our area, but a blizzard of polygons fell in my classroom last week. The students had just completed Envisions Topic 9 with an assessment. They worked diligently throughout this unit to understand geometric shapes and attributes. We needed a way to celebrate our learning...Geo-Snow!

1) The students were each given polygons to use to create a snowflake.

2) They traced their polygons onto white paper.. (I used the old paper turned dingy that someone has been giving a way in the copy room-thank you!)

3) I witnessed two techniques:

A) Some students  actually created their snowflakes on the white (dingy) paper.
They then wanted to cut out their snowflake along the perimeter and not in seperate pieces (aka area).   
  Not my vision but really smart!

B) Other students randomly traced their pieces on the white(dingy) paper and created their snowflakes
in individualized pieces.
( When I was in 4th grade I would have chosen option B. However, as an  adult who must plan out every detail of everything..I would go for option A)

4) After the polygons were glued into place the students had to complete a polygon record sheet.
Snowflake Polygon

I loved the plethora (I love that word), of math skills within this one geometric lesson. All the learning, mixed with laughter, was a wonderful sight to see and made my teacher heart so happy! This will definitely be an activity I will repeat in the future.

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The timing of the lesson was also perfect as we are in desperate need of some type of white "stuff" in our lives! This time last year we had a total of 12.5 inches of snow. This year...0.2 inches! We had one mini-snow day in December but that is it so far. This week's forcast is rain and 60's so it looks like I may have to work in some more snow themed learning