Copies of Figures

10 min

Narrative

The purpose of this Warm-up is to elicit the idea that placing a coordinate grid over a design can help identify points that are helpful for copying the design, which will be useful when students copy a figure using a coordinate grid in a later activity. While students may notice and wonder many things about this image, points in the design that could be located with an ordered pair are the important discussion points.

Launch

  • Groups of 2
  • Display the image.
  • “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 design made with shapes.
  • There’s a coordinate grid over the design.
  • The design is centered on the 5 on the horizontal axis.
  • The corners of the shapes meet at coordinates.
  • The top of the design reaches 10 on the vertical axis.
Students may wonder:
  • Why is this design on a coordinate grid?
  • What other ordered pairs would show points in the design?
  • Could I use the grid to copy the design?
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
  • “Grids are used in graphic design to design print layouts and websites. What are some other places you’ve seen grids used?” (games, maps, art) 
  • “What points on the grid could help make a copy of this design? Why would they be helpful?” ((5,0)(5, 0), (5,4)(5, 4), and (5,8)(5,8)) would be helpful because it shows the middle of the design where the parallelograms come together. You could look for points at each corner of the shapes.)
Standards
Building Toward
  • 5.G.2·Represent real world and mathematical problems by graphing points in the first quadrant of the coordinate plane, and interpret coordinate values of points in the context of the situation.
  • 5.G.A.2·Represent real world and mathematical problems by graphing points in the first quadrant of the coordinate plane, and interpret coordinate values of points in the context of the situation.

20 min

20 min