Designing Shapes With Pipe Cleaners

In this lesson, children will use pipe cleaners to create shapes.

This lesson will help children meet the following educational standards:

Demonstrate curiosity about the world and begin to use the practices of science and engineering to answer questions and solve problems
Explore concepts and information about the physical, earth and life sciences
Understand important connections and concepts in science and engineering
Analyze characteristics and properties of two- and three-dimensional geometric shapes and develop mathematical arguments about geometric relationships
Use visualization, spatial reasoning and geometric modeling to solve problems

After this lesson, children should be more proficient at:

Developing and using models to represent their ideas, observations and explanations through approaches such as drawing, building or modeling with clay
Expressing wonder and curiosity about their world by asking questions, solving problems and designing things
Making meaning from experience and information by describing, talking and thinking about what happened during an investigation
Using nonstandard and standard scientific tools for investigation
Recognizing, naming, building, drawing, comparing, and sorting two- and three-dimensional shapes
Describing attributes and parts of two- and three-dimensional shapes
Creating mental images of geometric shapes using spatial memory and spatial visualization
Recognizing and representing shapes from different perspectives

The book, When a Line Bends, a Shape Begins, by Rhonda Growler Greene
Pipe cleaners (2-3 packages)
A set of 10 8”x12” shape cards for each child (each card should feature a different shape: circle, square, rectangle, triangle, diamond, oval, star, heart, crescent, and octagon)

Explain that you are going to share a book about different shapes. Read the title of the book, When a Line Bends, a Shape Begins. Ask the children what they think the title means.
Based on the book's title and cover, ask the children if they have any predictions about what will happen in the story.
Read: When a Line Bends, a Shape Begins.
As you read aloud, stop and discuss certain parts of the story. For instance, locate and name the shapes in the pictures and identify their characteristics.
After you've finished reading and discussing the book, ask again: “What do you think the book's title means?"

Explain that the children are going to bend their pipe cleaners into the 10 shapes on their shape cards.
Review the shapes on the cards with the children.
Explain that each child will make the 10 shapes on the cards, using the cards as guides.
Model how to use more than one pipe cleaner to construct a shape.
Once the shapes are finished, the children can design and create structures with their pipe cleaner shapes.

Circle: A round shape that has no straight edges or corners, such as a wheel
Crescent: The shape of the visible part of the moon when it is less than half-full
Diamond: A rhombus with four equal sides that looks like a slanted square
Octagon: A polygon with eight sides, such as a stop sign
Oval: A stretched-out circle that is shaped like an egg
Rectangle: A four-sided shape with straight sides, interior angles that are right angles (90°), and opposite sides that are parallel and of equal length.
Shape: A form or outline, such as the shape of a circle
Square: A shape with four corners and four straight sides that are the same length or size
Star: A shape that has four or more pointed parts coming out from a center at equal distances
Triangle: A pointy shape with three sides and three corners, such as a slice of pizza

There are many hidden shapes on the playground equipment. Can you find them?

Engineering Explorers