Lesson+5+-+Areas+of+Kites

= Lesson #5 =

Title of lesson: Areas of Kites
Description of lesson: Students will use what they've learned so far about finding the areas of triangles to find the areas of kites. Kites can be split into two congruent triangles, so the students will use what they've learned so far not only to find the area of a kite, but to understand the area formula that we typically use to find the area of a kite.

Assignment: We will work as a large group, in small groups and individually to solve for the areas of various parallelograms. We'll begin the lesson with a warm-up problem where students will work individually to find the area of a trapezoid using what they learned in the previous lesson. After the students have been given 5 minutes to work individually, we will take 5 minutes to discuss the solution as a class.

A kite will be displayed on the smartboard/promethean board. We will discuss the definition of a kite and prove how, if we split the kite along one of the diagonals, the kite can be seen as two congruent triangles. We will work together to split the kite into two triangles and use SSS to prove that the two triangles are congruent. Then we can find the area of the two triangles. This should take approximately 10 minutes. Another kite will then be displayed on the board and the students will be divided into groups of 3-4 and asked to solve for its area. They will be given 10 minutes to work on this. After the students have had time to work in their groups, we will spend about 5 minutes discussing the solution as a class. A third kite will be shown on the board, along with the formula for finding the area of a kite [area = (1/2)(diagonal 1)(diagonal 2)] and how we arrive at this formula by adding the areas of the two triangles. This will take approximately 10 minutes

For homework, the students will be asked to complete a brief quiz on some of the concepts we've covered so far in the unit and review the flashcards for the topic.

Resources/materials needed: Students may use the textbook as an additional reference. We will be using the smartboard/promethean board during class and students will need to bring their notebooks, and a pencil. The quiz and flashcards will be posted on the class website:

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Technology reflection: The quiz for the lesson will allow the students to see the concepts they understand as well as those where more work is needed. It will provide me with information about which lessons I may need to cover more in-depth.

Evaluation: I will need to focus on making sure all of the students' needs are met by the lesson and that no one is being left behind. I will need to make sure I keep on track in terms of timing so that we are able to cover the unit in the time allotted. I will also need to make sure I have a backup plan in place just in case there is a technical problem with any of the technology. For example, I'll need to make sure I have chalk or dry erase markers in case the smartboard/promethean board isn't working. I'll also need to make sure I have a few copies of the quiz printed in case there are any problems with the class website or there are students who can't access the internet for some reason.