Grade Levels: 6-8, 9-12

*Click to open and customize your copy of the Circles Lesson Plan.

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Circles, and supports the standard of exploring and applying geometric formulas to solve mathematical and real-world problems. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Ask students:

  • What are some examples of circles you see in your classroom? At home? At the store? How does a circle compare to other shapes?
  • Why might it be helpful to know the sizeof a circle?

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

  • Read the description on the Circles topic page.
  • Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
  • Assign Related Reading. Have students read one of the following articles: “In Practice” or “Did You Know?”. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Assign the Circles Challenge and Quiz, prompting students to apply essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about circles while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

  • Make-a-Movie: Produce a tutorial that explains the relationship between the radius and diameter of a circle.
  • Make-a-Map: Use formulas to solve the following problem: What is the circumference and area of a circle with a radius of 5.5cm? (Note the answers are: Circumference: 34.56cm. Area: 95.03cm)
  • Creative Coding: Code a math problem involving circles.

More to Explore 

Geometry and Measurement Unit: Continue to build understanding around geometric reasoning by exploring more BrainPOP topics.

Teacher Support Resources:

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments