Polygon

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Polygon

Hopefully it won't take long
To point out that a decagon
Is a certain type of polygon
A ten angled and sided shape
Quite unlike one that has eight
Or else it would then be an octagon

And while all of us are on
The hot topic of polygons
We might as well go through the other lot
Like the quadrilateral
A square, rhombus or rectangle
With no more than the four sides that it’s got

And some would get rather annoyed
If I left out trapezoid
Or the simple diamond shape of kites
Or the parallelogram
Something else you also can
Call a quadrilateral if you like

Oh the list goes on and on
There’s the five sided pentagon
As well as the six sided Hexagon
The Heptagon has seven
That’s four less than eleven 
And finally nine for the nonagon!

And let us take a look and see
Shapes made up only three
Sides to them and only three angles
Being the shape commonly called
By the name that’s known to all
As the simple three sided triangle

Audio of Complete Poem

Gedge, K. (2014, February 1). A Poem About Polygons. The Vocabuverse.

Retrieved from http://www.vocabuverse.com/2014/02/what-is-polygon.html

Web Link

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Summary

The poem, Polygon, describes the basic polygons which 5th grade students need to know in a lighthearted manner. It is a great reintroduction piece to two-dimensional figures, particularly the names associated with polygons of a certain number of sides. Most poems available focus on only one polygon at a time. However, in fifth grade, it is important that students are able to work with a variety of polygons together so that they learn to classify them according to their attributes and properties. The poem, as shown above, encompasses all polygons from 3 to 10 sides, including the many variances of quadrilaterals. The complete poem actually lists polygons up to 100 sides!

Teaching Idea:  In My Mind's Eye

In order to link this poem to real life, I will ask my students to show me where they see polygons used in their everyday surroundings. Using the school's iPads, students will take digital photos to capture how polygons are used around our school. They must include at least 5 types of polygons, making sure to incorporate the number of sides and angles for each polygon used, plus at least one property of each particular polygon, such as, opposite sides parallel to each other.

To begin this lesson, we will read Polygon out loud as a class, pausing to discuss the polygons being described and what makes a specific polygon different from other polygons. This will serve to activate any background knowledge, specifically related material from prior grades, helping my students link their prior knowledge to new knowledge they will be learning. At each pause in the poem, I will ask my students to quickly get with a partner and discuss the attributes and properties of a particular polygon. We will then discuss all ideas as a whole class. At the completion of the poem, students will be broken into groups of 3 or 4, given iPads for each student, and asked to search our school for uses of polygons. Each group will be responsible for representing the polygons they find through a slide presentation or a movie, classifying them within subsets based on their attributes and properties.  

This lesson corresponds with Math TEKS 5.1(A), (D), (G); 5.5(A).

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