Ship Shape

MATH/ART – Students will learn to identify shapes using steamship references.

This lesson was written by Education Advisory Council Members Brigit Baumgartner and Mariam Afshar.

  Learning Objective:

Using the Ship Shape lesson, students will demonstrate their understanding of basic shapes by using several cut out shapes including trapezoids, half circles, circles, squares, and rectangles, gluing them to a piece of paper in the shape of a ship and discussing their design using the correct shape names with 100% accuracy. Scroll to the bottom for additional resources and additional state education standards.

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Education Standards

Common Core

• CCSS.MATH .CONTENT.K.G.A.1 – Describe objects in the environment using names of shapes, and describe the relative positions of these objects using terms such as above, below, beside, in front, and next to.
• CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.G.A.2 – Correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size.
• CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.G.A.1 – Distinguish between defining attributes (e.g., triangles are closed and three-sided) versus non-defining attributes (e.g., color, orientation, overall size); build and draw shapes to possess defining attributes. 
• CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.G.A.3 – Partition circles and rectangles into two and four equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, fourths, and quarters, and use the phrases half of, fourth of, and quarter of. Describe the whole as two of, or four of the shares. Understand for these examples that decomposing into more equal shares creates smaller shares.

Materials Needed for Ship Shape Lesson: 

• Images of ships 
• Blank paper (one for each student)
• Cut out shapes of various color construction paper
• Glue sticks 
• Download the Lesson Plan

Opening Two Options (5 minutes):

1. Look at the pictures of the ships on this page or browse the Steamship Historical Society of America’s online catalogue. Assign link to students and let them explore the photos. Ask students, pairs, groups or individuals to select one photo and answer one or two of the following questions and write their answer on a whiteboard, paper or in their notebook. Ask for volunteers to present their answers. Use links at bottom to have a read aloud with the class. Discuss what is happening in the book, ask what shapes they see on the boats, ask them to name the shapes.
2. Discuss the basic shapes with your students.
   • What shapes do you see? 
   • How many of each shape do you see? 
   • What shapes are where? 
   • What is the name of this shape?
   • If we fold/cut this circle in half, how many parts do we have?
   • Are they the same size?
   • Are they the same shape?
   • What are the attributes of each shape? How many sides?
   • Is the shape open or closed?
   • Do all triangles, squares, circles have these same attributes?
   • Are all squares green? So, can we say that color is an attribute of all squares/shapes?

Vocabulary:

Half, halves, fourths, quarters, half of, quarter of, fourth of, triangle, rectangle, circle, square, attribute, curved/straight, shape/figure, side 

Stem Sentences:

The shapes I see are _____.

I see ____.

The name of this shape is _____.

This shape is called _____.

This is a ______.

The sides of the ____ are ____. 

Ship Shape Activity:

1. Explain to your students that they will design their own ship using cut-out shapes. (You may prepare the shapes by cutting them out of construction paper before the lesson, or allow the students to cut out the shapes independently). 
2. Review the shapes with your students. 
3. Hand each student a piece of paper and ask them to state how they plan on constructing a ship using the cut-out shapes.
   1. What shapes will you put where? 
   2. What will your finished ship look like? 
   3. How many of each shape do you plan on using? 
4. Allow students to construct their ships by gluing the cut-out shapes to the paper. Keep the images of ships used in the opening of the lesson visible for students to use as inspiration. 
5. Once students have completed their ship, have them answer these questions on a separate piece of paper or on the back of their ship. 
6. Suggestion: give a large to very large circle to each student, have them fold it in half, talk about the parts, how they are equal and when unfold make a circle. This can serve as the boat base, but leave the flap open and they can write about their ship under the flap. This will help them know what to say when presenting and be great for hanging in the classroom.

Closure:

1. Have each student present their ship to the class. This can be done in a whole group or table group.
   1. Tell me more about the ship that you made? 
   2. What shapes did you use? 
   3. Does it look similar to any of the ships we looked at in the beginning of the lesson? 

Extension:

1. Different ships have different funnel designs. Look at some of the ships’ funnels from the beginning of the lesson and ask your students to add to their ship design by creating their own unique funnel. 

Additional Resources:

For more lessons and activities for younger students, click here.

Additional State Education Standards:

TEXAS: TEKS –

(ELA) K.5.C Reading/Vocabulary Development. Students understand new vocabulary and use it correctly when reading and writing. Students are expected to:
(C) identify and sort pictures of objects into conceptual categories (e.g., colors, shapes, textures);

(Maths) K.6.A,C D-F Geometry and measurement. The student applies mathematical process standards to analyze attributes of two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional solids to develop generalizations about their properties. The student is expected to: 
(A) identify two-dimensional shapes, including circles, triangles, rectangles, and squares as special rectangles; 
(C) identify two-dimensional components of three-dimensional objects;
(D) identify attributes of two-dimensional shapes using informal and formal geometric language interchangeably; 
(E) classify and sort a variety of regular and irregular two- and three-dimensional figures regardless of orientation or size; and 
(F) create two-dimensional shapes using a variety of materials and drawings.

(Art) K.2.A Creative expression. The student communicates ideas through original artworks using a variety of media with appropriate skills. The student expresses thoughts and ideas creatively while challenging the imagination, fostering reflective thinking, and developing disciplined effort and progressive problem-solving skills. The student is expected to:
(A) create artworks using a variety of lines, shapes, colors, textures, and forms;

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