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LESSON PLAN

Classification of Prisms and Pyramids

A
Apothem Team
Grade 5 · Geometry
LESSON AT A GLANCE
Warm-up
5 min
Explore
15 min
Consolidate
10 min
Practice
12 min
Exit ticket
3 min

Warm-up

Mystery shape: I have 5 faces. Two of my faces are triangles. Three are rectangles. What am I? (Triangular prism.) New: I have 5 faces. One is a square. Four are triangles. What am I? (Square pyramid.) The number and type of faces determine the shape.

Explore

Prism net construction: students construct nets for rectangular and triangular prisms, cut and fold to verify. For each: identify the base, count faces/edges/vertices, write the name. Then: find 3 prisms in the classroom or school environment.

Consolidate

Practice

Students build nets for 2 prisms, complete the quadrilateral hierarchy chart, and identify 5 prisms/pyramids in the environment with justification. Exit ticket: name a 3D shape with 6 rectangular faces.

Exit ticket

Students build nets for 2 prisms, complete the quadrilateral hierarchy chart, and identify 5 prisms/pyramids in the environment with justification. Exit ticket: name a 3D shape with 6 rectangular faces.

TIP  The base of a prism is the face that gives it its name, not necessarily the face it is resting on. A triangular prism can sit on a rectangular face, but the base is still a triangle.
WORKED EXAMPLES
How many faces, edges, and vertices does a triangular prism have?

Faces: 2 triangles + 3 rectangles = 5. Edges: 3 on each triangle + 3 connecting them = 9. Vertices: 3+3=6. Euler check: 5+6=11=9+2. Correct.

Is every rectangle a parallelogram?

Yes: a rectangle has two pairs of parallel sides (meeting at right angles), so it satisfies the parallelogram definition. Every rectangle is a parallelogram, but not every parallelogram is a rectangle (a rhombus that is not a square).

MATERIALS
3D shape models (prisms and pyramids)
Net templates
Geoboards for 2D shape classification
Quadrilateral classification chart
Environmental photos of 3D shapes
WATCH FOR
!Students may think pyramids and prisms are both named by their most visible face. For prisms, the base is the naming face. For pyramids, the base is the flat bottom face, not the triangular faces.
!Students may not recognize that a square is also a rectangle. The hierarchy: square IS-A rectangle IS-A parallelogram IS-A quadrilateral.