Angle Activities
Objective: Students will be able to introduce angles. They will be able to draw and bisect angles using a compass.
Activity-Have students work in pairs or small groups to produce, copy, and bisect angles. They should use compasses, colored pencils, tracing paper, and rulers in the activity. Every student draws an angle with rays that take up at least half of a sheet of tracing paper. The resulting angle should be labeled ABC. Students then exchange angles with partners, who reproduce the angle on a separate sheet of paper. Partners should use different colored pencils for their reproductions. Students can check their work by placing the copy over the original angle. If the vertices and rays line up, the angles are duplicated. Have students use the same procedure to bisect the duplicated angles.
Objective: Students will be able to name angles based on their number of degrees. They will draw and bisect angles using a compass.
Activity-Have each student name an angle measurement between 0 degrees and 180 degrees. List all measurements on the board. Divide the class into small groups. Have the groups add together all of the listed measurements. If necessary, remind students that a complete circle contains 360 degrees. They then should determine how many complete circles the resulting answer would contain. How many degrees remain? What kind of angle would the remaining number of degrees form? Have groups compare answers and check their work if the answers differ.
Activity-Have students find examples of angles in their homes. Ask them to conclude from their observations what kind of angle is most common in the home. (Examples may include room corners and the positions of the hands of a clock. Students should conclude that most angles they find in their homes are right angles.)