My first exposure to learning with AngleLegs was during professional learning in June 2016! I had never used these "toys" and was beyond excited after my first encounter. During our professional learning, we were each given a set and asked to build various polygons. Using academic vocabulary, we described our figures to our partners. Because of the colors of each AngleLeg, we were able to visually see the congruent sides. I couldn't wait to try this investigation with my kids this year!
Because of how our schedule is set up, we pre-teach/reteach foundational TEKS for our upcoming units, during our intervention time. During February, we spent two weeks revisiting similar figures, which was taught in 7th grade, as well as learning how to use a protractor to measure angles.
Students were each handed set of AngleLegs and allowed to play for a few minutes. It was interesting to watch how they sorted the figures, some in neat stacks, while others, immediately went to building and constructing. To start our investigation of similar figures, we constructed various triangles: equilateral, isosceles, scalene, right, acute, and obtuse. This provided insight to our upcoming lessons, as to what learners already understood!
After constructing our triangles, it was time to use the protractor and measure the angles inside each triangle. One of the best parts of using AngleLegs to learn how to use a protractor is that there is a place to "snap" the protractor on and lines to help where to place the protractor.
As we measured the various angles of our triangles, learners were given the opportunity to share their learning, by walking a new partner through the activity.
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