Properties of shape - Compare angles​ - Planning

In Year 3, as part of the summer term's exploration of Properties of Shape, students embark on a journey to understand and compare angles. Utilising practical resources such as sorting hoops, 2D shapes, mini clocks, and right angle detectors, the young learners are introduced to key terms like 'angle', 'right angle', 'acute', and 'obtuse'. The lesson begins with a starter activity that challenges students to identify right angles in everyday classroom objects, encouraging them to sort these items and articulate their reasoning. This hands-on approach sets the stage for the main objective of the lesson: to identify whether an angle is greater or lesser than a right angle.

Through a series of activities, students are prompted to use the new vocabulary to describe angles, supported by sentence stems to aid their verbal reasoning. Group work involves sorting classroom items into categories of acute or obtuse angles, with right angle detectors aiding their investigations. A practical reasoning question furthers their understanding, as they use matchsticks to create angles and explain their reasoning to a partner. The lesson plan anticipates common misconceptions, such as confusion about the nature of right angles and the angles present in various shapes. By the end of the lesson, students are expected to confidently recognise acute and obtuse angles, understand fractions in the context of quarters, and to use comparison symbols to compare angles, achieving different levels of depth in their understanding of the subject matter.