Lesson 11

All Kinds of Prisms

Lesson Purpose

The mathematical purpose of this lesson is for students to apply what they have learned about finding the volumes of right rectangular prisms and figures composed of right rectangular prisms to solve real-world problems.

Lesson Narrative

In previous lessons, students learned to find the volume of a right rectangular prism by multiplying the number of cubes in a layer by the number of layers. They found the volumes of rectangular prisms with and without the unit cubes showing. They used the associative property of multiplication to represent threefold whole-number products as volumes and learned to find the volume of rectangular prisms with whole-number side lengths by multiplying the length by the width by the height and multiplying the area of the base times the height. They also understand volume as additive. They found volumes of solid figures composed of two non-overlapping right rectangular prisms by adding the volumes of the non-overlapping parts. In this lesson, students apply these understandings to solve real-world problems.
  • Action and Expression
  • MLR6

Learning Goals

Teacher Facing

  • Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving volume.

Student Facing

  • Let’s find the volume of all different kinds of prisms.

Required Preparation

CCSS Standards

Addressing

Lesson Timeline

Warm-up 10 min
Activity 1 20 min
Activity 2 15 min
Lesson Synthesis 10 min
Cool-down 5 min

Teacher Reflection Questions

As you finish up this unit, reflect on the norms and activities that have supported each student in learning math. How have you seen each student grow as a young mathematician throughout this work? How have you seen yourself grow as a teacher? What will you continue to do and what will you improve on in Unit 2?

Suggested Centers

  • Five in a Row: Multiplication (3–5), Stage 4: Three Factors (Addressing)
  • Rolling for Fractions (3–5), Stage 2: Multiply a Fraction by a Whole Number (Supporting)

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