1st Grade · Math · 1.G.A.1

Geometry Lesson Plan for 1st Grade

A ready-to-teach geometry lesson for 1st Grade, built around naming flat and solid shapes, counting sides and vertices, drawing shapes from clues, building with solids and extending shape patterns. Print the plan, print the practice pages, and you are set.

Approximately 45 minutes

Learning objective

Name 2D and 3D shapes including circle, square, and cube
Match shape names to their visual representations
Build geometry vocabulary by identifying common shapes by name

Materials

Names of shapes
Identifying shapes
Drawing shapes
Drawing mirror images
Rotate 2D shapes
Scale 2D shapes
Pencils, and whiteboard space for the modeled examples

Lesson steps

1. Warm up together (5 min)
Ask students to find geometry in the room before you define anything. Geometry is the one strand where the examples are already on the walls.
2. Model it (I do) (10 min)
Draw and label two examples of geometry, then a non-example. The non-example does more teaching than the two correct ones combined.
3. Practice together (we do) (10 min)
Work three more problems as a class. Ask a different student to supply each step rather than the whole answer. If a step stalls, drop back to concrete objects or a drawing before moving on.
4. Independent practice (you do) (15 min)
Hand out "Names of shapes". Students work independently while you circulate. Note who is fluent, who is counting on fingers, and who has not started, because that grouping drives tomorrow's small group.
5. Close the loop (5 min)
Pull the class back. Ask one student to explain a problem they got right and one to name something that is still confusing. End on the confusion, not the success, so students learn that naming a gap is normal.

Check for understanding

Collect the practice pages and sort them into three piles: fluent, developing, and not yet. Any student in the third pile needs geometry retaught in a small group before the class moves on.

Differentiation

Extra support. Students who stall: pull them into a small group and rebuild geometry with concrete materials or a simpler text before asking for the written work again. Do not send the page home as homework, it will just rehearse the misunderstanding.

Extension. Students who finish early: ask them to write their own geometry problem for a partner to solve, then check the partner's work. Creating a problem is harder than solving one and it surfaces whether they really understand geometry.

Skills covered in this lesson

Names of shapes · Identifying shapes · Drawing shapes · Drawing mirror images · Rotate 2D shapes · Scale 2D shapes · Relative positions & shapes · Names of 3D Shapes · Shape Patterns

Questions teachers ask about teaching geometry

What geometry do 1st graders learn?

CCSS 1.G.A.1 asks 1st graders to tell defining attributes, like 3 sides, from non-defining ones, like color or size, and to draw shapes that have the defining attributes. 1.G.A.2 adds building with flat and solid shapes, such as a rocket made of a cone, a cylinder and a cube.

Which solid shapes should a 1st grader know?

The cube, sphere, cone, cylinder and rectangular prism. The names of 3D shapes pages match them to objects like a basketball, a cereal box and a birthday hat, and ask which solids roll, which stack and which do both.

What shape patterns do 1st graders work on?

Patterns with longer units, such as ABC, AABB and ABBC, patterns that change color and shape at once, growing patterns and patterns where a shape turns or flips. Finding the pattern unit, the part that repeats, is the key step.

Do these 1st grade geometry worksheets have answer keys?

Yes. All 30 sheets have an answer key. Drawing pages, where answers vary, show a sample drawing and what to accept.