The purpose of this activity is for students to draw shapes. Students draw straight lines to connect the dots to create shapes. Some students may benefit from using a ruler or straight edge. Students draw shapes that they can name, such as triangles and rectangles. They also draw shapes the formal names of which students have yet to be introduced. Students can describe the attributes but are not expected to name the shapes.

• Display the last image with 3 red dots.
• “Tyler is connecting the dots. What shape do you think he is going to make? Why?” (A triangle. There are 3 dots so there will be 3 sides. Triangles have 3 sides.)
• If needed, ask, “The shape will have how many corners? The shape will have how many sides?”

The purpose of this activity is for students to describe and draw shapes. Students work in pairs to describe and draw a mystery shape. Students learn that they need to be precise in describing the shape in order for their partner to draw the shape accurately and have opportunities to use the language they have learned to describe shape attributes (MP6). There are also shapes the formal names of which students have yet to be introduced. Students can describe the attributes but are not expected to name the shapes.

• “Which clues helped you figure out how to draw the shape?”

The purpose of this activity is for students to learn Stage 2 of the Build Shapes center. One student secretly chooses a shape from the gameboard and describes the shape to their partner. Then their partner builds the described shape, using straws and clay. Together they check to see if the shape that was built matches the shape from the gameboard. This center combines the work that students have done in previous activities with describing shapes while practicing building shapes. With repeated experience, students describe and build shapes with more precision and identify key attributes to highlight in their descriptions (MP8).

After they participate in the center, students choose from any stage of previously introduced centers:

• Build Shapes
• Counting Collections
• Which One?
• Picture Books
• Bingo
• Shake and Spill

• “If you needed your partner to build a triangle, what could you tell them?”