Tiny House: Design and Solve
10 min
Narrative
The purpose of this Warm-up is to familiarize students with tiny houses and encourage them to think about the area of a tiny house, which will be useful when students design a tiny house in a later activity. While students may notice and wonder many things about the images, the fact that the tiny houses are very small and cover small areas are the important discussion points.
Launch
- Groups of 2
- Display the images.
- “What do you notice? What do you wonder?”
- 1 minute: quiet think time
Teacher Instructions
- “Discuss your thinking with your partner.”
- 1 minute: partner discussion
- Share and record responses.
Student Task
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
Sample Response
Students may notice:
- There’s a cabin.
- There’s a house that looks really boxy.
- The cabin is in the woods.
- The cabin looks small.
- One picture is of the inside of a school bus, but there’s a couch and a sewing table.
- There are doors and windows shaped like quadrilaterals.
Students may wonder:
- Do people live in these houses?
- How many people can these houses hold?
- Why are these houses so small?
- What is the area of each house?
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
- “All of these are types of tiny houses, which are houses that are usually under 400 square feet. What might be some reasons for choosing to build or live in a tiny house?” (It is less expensive to build. It works for those who live alone or don't want a lot of space. It is good for the environment because it takes up less space in nature.)
- “Tiny houses come in many forms or types. Some are small cabins, but some are built out of shipping containers and even school buses (as in the last image).”
- “What could be some advantages of each type? What could be some disadvantages of each type?” (A shipping container would be strong, but it could rust and could be challenging to create windows and doors. A cabin would be kind of like building a regular house. It could have 2 stories and could be made bigger, but some people might not like the look of a cabin. The school bus is mobile, so it wouldn’t have to stay in one spot, but there are a bunch of windows that would need to be covered.)
Standards
Building On
- 3.MD.C·Geometric measurement: understand concepts of area and relate area to multiplication and to addition.
- 3.MD.C·Geometric measurement: understand concepts of area and relate area to multiplication and to addition.
- 3.MD.D·Geometric measurement: recognize perimeter as an attribute of plane figures and distinguish between linear and area measures.
- 3.MD.D·Geometric measurement: recognize perimeter as an attribute of plane figures and distinguish between linear and area measures.
25 min
15 min
Knowledge Components
All skills for this lesson
No KCs tagged for this lesson
Tiny House: Design and Solve
10 min
Narrative
The purpose of this Warm-up is to familiarize students with tiny houses and encourage them to think about the area of a tiny house, which will be useful when students design a tiny house in a later activity. While students may notice and wonder many things about the images, the fact that the tiny houses are very small and cover small areas are the important discussion points.
Launch
- Groups of 2
- Display the images.
- “What do you notice? What do you wonder?”
- 1 minute: quiet think time
Teacher Instructions
- “Discuss your thinking with your partner.”
- 1 minute: partner discussion
- Share and record responses.
Student Task
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
Sample Response
Students may notice:
- There’s a cabin.
- There’s a house that looks really boxy.
- The cabin is in the woods.
- The cabin looks small.
- One picture is of the inside of a school bus, but there’s a couch and a sewing table.
- There are doors and windows shaped like quadrilaterals.
Students may wonder:
- Do people live in these houses?
- How many people can these houses hold?
- Why are these houses so small?
- What is the area of each house?
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
- “All of these are types of tiny houses, which are houses that are usually under 400 square feet. What might be some reasons for choosing to build or live in a tiny house?” (It is less expensive to build. It works for those who live alone or don't want a lot of space. It is good for the environment because it takes up less space in nature.)
- “Tiny houses come in many forms or types. Some are small cabins, but some are built out of shipping containers and even school buses (as in the last image).”
- “What could be some advantages of each type? What could be some disadvantages of each type?” (A shipping container would be strong, but it could rust and could be challenging to create windows and doors. A cabin would be kind of like building a regular house. It could have 2 stories and could be made bigger, but some people might not like the look of a cabin. The school bus is mobile, so it wouldn’t have to stay in one spot, but there are a bunch of windows that would need to be covered.)
Standards
Building On
- 3.MD.C·Geometric measurement: understand concepts of area and relate area to multiplication and to addition.
- 3.MD.C·Geometric measurement: understand concepts of area and relate area to multiplication and to addition.
- 3.MD.D·Geometric measurement: recognize perimeter as an attribute of plane figures and distinguish between linear and area measures.
- 3.MD.D·Geometric measurement: recognize perimeter as an attribute of plane figures and distinguish between linear and area measures.