Characteristics of Trapezoids

When we covered characteristics of trapezoids I wanted to make our ISN page different than the rest that we have done.  I looked around at other teacher's blogs to see what kind of cool ideas they were doing and I saw a post that had a page with a pocket on it.  I LOVE the pocket idea!

<~This is what our page looked like when it was completed.  We covered the three different kinds of trapezoids: Isosceles, Right and Scalene.

To make the pocket I gave students a regular size index card that we taped on three sides.  To make the cards the students cut out the green boxes and glued those onto the regular size index cards as well.

Each type of trapezoid got their own card, which we colored equal angles the same color and identified characteristics about their sides.

I had the students use protractors to measure each of the angles in the trapezoids to determine which ones were equal to each other and then color them.  After that we wrote the characteristics of the angles down under the characteristics section. We then began talking about the sides, some students needed to use rulers to measure the lengths because visually they weren't sure which ones were equal.

We then started discussing what equations that we could come up with for each of the trapezoids.   What we came up with we wrote under the equations section.

They then were given a green sheet that had problems involving trapezoids on them.  Students had to cut them out, then decide which problem belonged with which type of trapezoid.

Once they match up the problem with the type of trapezoid they glued them onto the back of the card.   Using the characteristics and equations they discovered on the front, they had to solve the problems on the back.

When they were finished we went through them together and they were given their practice for the right page.


Here is their practice page on the right. ~>

Trapezoid Cards

Trapezoid Problems