All about Tents
5 min
Narrative
The purpose of this Warm-up is to familiarize students with the context of tents, which will be useful when students investigate the amount of material needed to construct tents later in the lesson. While students may notice and wonder many things about these images, the important discussion points are that many structures use fabric (or another flexible material) for cover or enclosure. These structures can be designed in different shapes and sizes and to accommodate different purposes or numbers of occupants.
When students articulate what they notice and wonder, they have an opportunity to attend to precision in the language that they use to describe what they see (MP6). They might first propose less formal or imprecise language, and then restate their observation with more precise language in order to communicate more clearly.
Launch
Student Task
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
Sample Response
Students may notice:
- These are all pictures of tents or shelters built with fabric or a flexible material.
- Most images show outdoor tents. One picture shows an indoor tent or a fort.
- The tents are of different kinds, shapes, and sizes.
- Some tents are held up by sticks or posts. Others are held up by frames and strings.
Students may wonder:
- How many people can fit in each tent?
- What are the tents used for? Why are they put up where they are?
- How many blankets are needed to make the indoor fort? What are the strings tied to?
- How is the teepee built? How much fabric does it take?
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
Record and display their responses for all to see, without editing or commentary. If possible, record the relevant reasoning on or near the images. Next, ask students, “Is there anything on this list that you are wondering about now?” Encourage students to respectfully disagree, ask for clarification, or point out contradicting information.
If the idea of structures that use a flexible material does not come up during the conversation, invite students to discuss this idea. Relate it to students’ experience by asking questions such as:
- “Have you seen a tent?”
- “Have you been inside a tent or a structure that uses fabric or another flexible material for cover?”
- “Have you built one?”
Invite students to reflect on the size of the structure, how it was built, the functions it served, and the experience inside or underneath it.
Tell students that they will look at some tent designs and the amount of materials needed to build them.
Standards
- 6.G.1·Find the area of right triangles, other triangles, special quadrilaterals, and polygons by composing into rectangles or decomposing into triangles and other shapes; apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.
- 6.G.4·Represent three-dimensional figures using nets made up of rectangles and triangles, and use the nets to find the surface area of these figures. Apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.
- 6.G.A.1·Find the area of right triangles, other triangles, special quadrilaterals, and polygons by composing into rectangles or decomposing into triangles and other shapes; apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.
- 6.G.A.4·Represent three-dimensional figures using nets made up of rectangles and triangles, and use the nets to find the surface area of these figures. Apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.
35 min
Knowledge Components
All skills for this lesson
No KCs tagged for this lesson
All about Tents
5 min
Narrative
The purpose of this Warm-up is to familiarize students with the context of tents, which will be useful when students investigate the amount of material needed to construct tents later in the lesson. While students may notice and wonder many things about these images, the important discussion points are that many structures use fabric (or another flexible material) for cover or enclosure. These structures can be designed in different shapes and sizes and to accommodate different purposes or numbers of occupants.
When students articulate what they notice and wonder, they have an opportunity to attend to precision in the language that they use to describe what they see (MP6). They might first propose less formal or imprecise language, and then restate their observation with more precise language in order to communicate more clearly.
Launch
Student Task
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
Sample Response
Students may notice:
- These are all pictures of tents or shelters built with fabric or a flexible material.
- Most images show outdoor tents. One picture shows an indoor tent or a fort.
- The tents are of different kinds, shapes, and sizes.
- Some tents are held up by sticks or posts. Others are held up by frames and strings.
Students may wonder:
- How many people can fit in each tent?
- What are the tents used for? Why are they put up where they are?
- How many blankets are needed to make the indoor fort? What are the strings tied to?
- How is the teepee built? How much fabric does it take?
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
Record and display their responses for all to see, without editing or commentary. If possible, record the relevant reasoning on or near the images. Next, ask students, “Is there anything on this list that you are wondering about now?” Encourage students to respectfully disagree, ask for clarification, or point out contradicting information.
If the idea of structures that use a flexible material does not come up during the conversation, invite students to discuss this idea. Relate it to students’ experience by asking questions such as:
- “Have you seen a tent?”
- “Have you been inside a tent or a structure that uses fabric or another flexible material for cover?”
- “Have you built one?”
Invite students to reflect on the size of the structure, how it was built, the functions it served, and the experience inside or underneath it.
Tell students that they will look at some tent designs and the amount of materials needed to build them.
Standards
- 6.G.1·Find the area of right triangles, other triangles, special quadrilaterals, and polygons by composing into rectangles or decomposing into triangles and other shapes; apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.
- 6.G.4·Represent three-dimensional figures using nets made up of rectangles and triangles, and use the nets to find the surface area of these figures. Apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.
- 6.G.A.1·Find the area of right triangles, other triangles, special quadrilaterals, and polygons by composing into rectangles or decomposing into triangles and other shapes; apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.
- 6.G.A.4·Represent three-dimensional figures using nets made up of rectangles and triangles, and use the nets to find the surface area of these figures. Apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.