Trapezoid Art Project

My students are struggling with identifying and classifying quadrilaterals.  I am developing stations and lessons that give them more hands-on experience with them.  I want them to learn the vocabulary by using it in different activities.  Here is a lesson I taught about a month ago.

I cut twelve 3-inch squares for each student and gave each a 9X12 background.  As you can tell from the pictures, I chose fall colors for this activity, but you could easily choose a different color scheme for a different time of year.

I had them start with one square and we divided it into two trapezoids. Then I showed them how to cut two more squares into congruent shapes so they could complete one row of the completed project.

Next we arranged the trapezoids so that they would form that first row.  We talked about where the 90-degree angles needed to be arranged so the top and bottom of the row would continue to be parallel.  This was the most difficult part for some students.

The resulting shapes are rectangles, parallelograms and Isosceles trapezoids.  Once the students could complete a row, I let them glue it to the background paper and get three more squares.  They needed to show me the second completed row before I would let them glue it and then I could tell they were ready to work on their own.

All but one of my students successfully completed this activity.  They also had a chance to use their geometry vocabulary in a hands-on activity.

This activity is a part of my Classifying Quadrilaterals unit in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.