Quadrilateral Design Project

Recently I taught our 6th math unit on quadrilaterals to my 5th graders.  This is a quicker unit than decimals and fractions, but I wanted to try to make it fun and have a cute/creative project for them to work on to apply the skills they have learned.

One of the standards they have to master is classifying quadrilaterals and understand the hierarchy of these shapes.  The project I came up with for them to apply this understanding was a design project.  Each student must think of a space (place) they would like to design, but all of the components of the design MUST be a quadrilateral.  I have them sketch out a rough draft of their idea, and then they complete the final copy on a print-out of grid paper.  The smaller the squares, the better!  This is helpful because it makes it easer to draw straight lines and organize the design neatly.

The other component of the project is having them create a "key" for their design.  For this, they must write down the five quadrilaterals required to be included:  rectangle, parallelogram, square, rhombus, and trapezoid.  They have to list the properties of each of the quadrilaterals and then draw the symbols of those quadrilaterals from their design in the quadrilateral category they belong to, along with a label as to what the shape represents in the photo.  For example, if they have designed a classroom and they drew squares for desks, they would draw one of those in the square category and label it "desk".

Below are some of my class's examples from this year.  These will help you to better understand what the project looks like when it's complete.  I was incredibly impressed with how they turned out and so proud of my students' creativity in this assignment.

 

I recently turned this project into a product, so if you are interested in doing this with your class, you can find it HERE.  You will have a student directions page and a rubric to help guide your students through the project.  This was such a fun way to complete our unit and my students had a great time with it.