Mathematics 5 curriculum guide 2015 I table of contents acknowledgements

Suggested Resources
• Teaching Student-Centered 
Mathematics, Grades 3 - 5 - 
John A Van De Walle and 
Louanne H. Lovin
• Resource Links: https://www.
k12pl.nl.ca/curr/k-6/math/
grade-5/links/unit10
-
Quadrilateral Song

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MATHEMATICS 5 CURRICULUM GUIDE 2015
Specific Outcomes
2-D AND 3-D GEOMETRY
Suggestions for Teaching and Learning
Students will be expected to:
Shape and Space (3-D Objects and 2-D Shapes)
SS6 Continued...
Achievement Indicator:
5SS6.1 (Continued) Identify and 
describe the characteristics of a 
pre-sorted set of quadrilaterals.
Van de Walle suggests using the Mystery Definition Approach to 
distinguishing common attributes of sets of shapes. 
Students could be presented with the following diagrams:
All of these have something in common.
None of these have it.
Which of these have it?
They should identify a property that is a characteristic of all members of 
the first set, but not characteristic of any members of the second set. In 
this case, the characteristic is quadrilaterals with four equal length sides.
Once they have identified the property, students select shapes from the 
third set that have that characteristic. Rather than verbalize the choice 
of shapes in the third set, students should write an explanation for their 
choice.
Creation of additional examples of mystery definitions may have shapes 
in line one (
All of these have something in common
) which illustrate a 
sorting rule using one of the following characteristics:
• all four sides equal
• opposites sides equal
• one pair of opposite sides parallel
• adjacent sides equal
• four right angles
• opposite sides equal 
The value of the Mystery Definition Approach is that students develop 
their own definitions based on their own experiences. The official 
or formal definition can be presented after students have developed 
a conceptual understanding of the quadrilateral property(s) being 
explored.
Students could also play online games related to classifying 
quadrilaterals.

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