We’ve done many projects over the course of the past two years. One of the favorites of the students though was the Angry Birds posters we created last year. While learning about angles, students were asked to create their own Angry Birds level. They then had to use protractors to measure the launch angles of each bird. It was a fun way to learn about how to measure an angle!
When we created those poster last year, Mr. Avery was teaching fourth grade. Now teaching sixth grade, we wanted to do the Angry Bird posters but we needed to add something else to them to tie in to what we were currently learning about. So, this year, instead of just measuring angles, we also used it to learn about proportions!
A proportion is another term that refers to similar figures. Students had previously learned that similar figures have the same shape but are not the same size. You can always tell if figures are proportional to each other based upon whether they are similar.
Sometimes we have to create proportional shapes. We can do so by measuring the shape that we are given and then multiplying or dividing the sides by the same number. For example, in the picture below, our first square is one unit by one unit. If we multiply the sides by 2, our proportional square becomes 2 units by 2 units.
You could also multiply your sides by 4 and have a square that is 4 units by 4 units. You could multiply your sides by 10 and have a square that is 10 units by 10 units. You could even multiply it by 1,000 and you would have a square that is 1,000 units by 1,000 units! All of those squares would be proportional to our original shape because the figures are similar. They’re the same shape, just different sizes!
For our project, students paired up and then because of the time of year, they were asked to design an Angry Bird level based on the Angry Bird Seasons game. Students started out with a 15 unit by 12 unit grid. They had to sketch the layout of their design.
After students figured out their designs, it was time to create our actual posters. The measurement of the posters was 30 units by 24 units, twice the size of the original grid. Students had to double the size of everything in their layout for their final product! In doing so, the poster was proportional to the original sketch.
We still kept the angle aspect of the project as well. After the posters were completed, students had to use a compass to show the trajectory of each bird. We then used a protractor to show the angle that each bird would have to be launched from the slingshot to complete the level.
Take a look at our finished product in the slideshow below!
*Where might proportions come in handy outside of school?*
*What was your favorite game you played growing up?*
Dear Mr. Avery,
I love your drawings of the Angry Birds! You could be famous for those. I hope you submit them to the Angry Birds inventers. You should also have more drawings made. I am jealous that you and your class are such amazing drawers!
Cyber High-Five,
Kora A True Techie Kid 🙂
Dear Mr. Avery and class,
My favorite games growing up were card games like Rummy and Cribbage. But my very favorite game of all time is Scrabble! I love it… because even at my very old age I am still learning new words and I LOVE to read the dictionary! Yes, I am a geek… and proud of it! When I was a teenager, not too long after the age of the dinosaurs, there was this invention called the Atari… it was the first home video game system. The kids I used to babysit had one and we played for hours and hours. One of those kids is now one of the Creative Directors at Harmonix and was in charge of developing the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games. Have you heard of them?
Sincerely,
Liz P.
Dear mom,
I definitly know him! He is so funny 😆 He has an odd sense of humor like you (no wonder)! I hope he designs a new game. He could be famous! 🙂
Your daughter,
Tessa
Hi Allison W.,
I wish they had this game around when I was younger. My favorite game when I was growing up was “kick the can”. The whole neighborhood would get together at my house and play it all day. Have fun in school! Keep up the good work.
Ann W.
Great job with the posters. Maybe you guys will be good at geometry in high school with all this practice with angles, etc.(better than I was I’m sure!)
Some of my favorite games growing up were The game of Life, Trouble, and playing wiffleball. I don’t think I had one favorite above the rest.
Keep up the good work. Looking forward to what you guys have planned next. Can you believe the school year is just about half over? Next stop, middle school!
Dear 6th graders,
I am awed at how well you did on those posters! 🙂 I hope you all had fun with it! I wonder what you will do next?…
-Mr. Princiotta :geek:
Dear dad,
I don’t know what we are doing next but if you wait there will be another post up on the blog soon! I hope I can get in another video before the end of the school year!
Your daughter,
Tessa
My favorite game is Temple run! Keep up the good work!
-Lily (Emma’s cousin)
Looks great Mr. Avery. It was a great idea incorporating a game that is poplular now with the kids to help them understand angles and other proportion items. All of the pictures by the kids made it very easy to understand as well. Great work everyone.
~Tara W.
I love the angry birds pigs! The courses were amazing! Keep on going!
~Dalton~
( Emma’s brother )
Dear Dalton,
Thank you so much for commenting! I loved doing this project, and loved drawing all the pigs! Thank you so much!
~ Emma W.
Dear Class,
Nice work on the Angry Birds Proportion Project. You could use proportions outside of the classroom in cooking and building projects. My favorite board game was Dogfight. It was based on World War I planes in a scene over Europe, probably France. My favorite card game was hearts. And my favorite outdoor game was street hockey. Keep up the good work!
Emma’s Dad
Dear Dad,
Thank you so much for the comment! It was really fun making the Angry Birds proportions. I love playing Dogfight!It is a really old game! Thank you for commenting!
~ Emma
Dear Mr. Avery,
I haven’t played angry birds before. But there is one thing that concerns me: why are these birds so angry? Perhaps, they’re not angry at all and just misunderstood? Anyways as a child I played: basketball, baseball, and 4 square. So pretty much lots of outdoor things.
Sincerely,
Molly’s Dad
Dear Mr. Avery’s class,
There were no gaming consoles, PCs, cellphones, etc. when I was growing up. Some of my favorite board games were strategy type games such as Stratego and Risk.
Kirstyn’s Dad
Dear Mr. Avery,
I am Molly’s little sister. I really liked the projects you guys did. My favorite was Wes’. It looked really cool. It had lots of detail. I liked the cave too. Plus Angry Birds is lots of fun. My favorite Angry Bird is the triangle yellow one.
Bye,
Julia C.
Dear Mr. Avery,
I’m Molly’s little brother George. I really like the Angry Bird projects you did. The ones with beards and Santa hats and stuff were really funny. I love playing Angry Birds on my big brother Thomas’s ipod. The pigs are really weird and funny. Plus molly said she’ll bring me on soon (if i’m good).
Bye,
George C.
I love your website. And I love how you have lots of other stuff and I like how you are very creative with your blog and you do not just have one thing. And I like that you have math on it to I really like it well I love your blog Bye.
Dear Mr. Avery,
My favorite game is Angry Birds Rio. How hard was it to make the pictures? I like the game so much I have it on my iPod and play just about every day. Did you have fun on your project?
Sincerely,
Izela A 49’er
Dear Mr.Avery and class,
My favorite game from when I was younger was “Monopoly” because my cousins and I we would all play together during many rainy days. I also love to play “Scrabble” because it involves different strategies. Keep up the great work. 🙂
Sincerely,
Tom B.
Dear Mr. Avery,
My favorite board game is Clue. I have No Clue how to play it. My favorite video game is Just Dance 3 because I love dancing with Taiter. My favorite all time game is DOODLEJUMP! Keep up the excellent work!
Sincerely,
Tristan!
P.S. I heard you and your class tried Vegemite!
BYE BYE
Dear Mr. Avery,
Hi Mr. Avery it’s Sam’s brother Nate. Your blog is awesome!
From,
Sam’s brother Nate
Dear Mr. Avery and Class,
My favoite game is Kirby’s Return To Dreamland. I like the idea of making Angry Birds posters. It’s cool, because it teaches you something about angles and proportions.
Sincerely,
Christian a 49’er
Dear Melody,
Thanks for noticing how great our Angry Bird posters are. It was so much fun actually making the finished product. It also took much time and hard teamwork to get the job done. The idea goes to Mr. Avery.
Sincerely, Wesley K.
Dear Class:
My favorite game growing up was Half Ball. It was like wiffle ball but we would use a pink rubber ball cut in half so that we could throw nasty curve balls to each other (we would throw the ball like a regular pitch so it did not cause any stress on the elbow). The bat was thin…we would use a broom stick that was cut to 3-4 feet long. Having to swing a thin bat at a ball that was curving in and out really helped us develop into good baseball hitters/players too. We would also mark off a home run line and play home run derby. We would play all afternoon.
Sincerely,
Frank P.
Dear Mr. Averys class,
I like the idea of the Angry bird posters I wish I could do that activity. My favorite game is checkers.
Sincerely,
Emma
A 49er
Dear Mr. Avery,
I really like the idea of Angry Birds. Because it seems very creative and fun. My favorite picture was 8 of 10 always be creative every day. 🙂
Sincerely,
Cameron
Dear Mr. Avery,
My favorite game was Angry Birds Rio. I really like this game. Some more way we can use proportions are building an apartment, building a house and building a hotel.
Sincerely
Isabella a 49’er
Dear Class,
My favorite game to play is Angry Birds Rio ! I really like this game, it’s fun. One way that we could use proportions outside of the classroom would be building a home. We would need to measure the different rooms and make sure everything was the right sizes.
Sincerely,
Tyler a 49’er
Dear Tyler,
I love the original Angry Birds. I have only played Angry Birds Rio once but I thought it was fun to play. I also like Doodle Jump. Have you ever played Doodle Jump?
From,
Ryan S
Dear Mr. Avery,
I really liked the posters your class made. I like the idea of doing an Angry birds project. It looks fun doing an Angry Birds project.
Sincerely,
Melody a 49’er
Dear Mr. Avery,
My favorite game growing up was Jackpot. It is a football game and you have to use a little bit of math so you can add up the money so you can to get to 1,000,000 for example.
Sincerely,
Belal
A 49’er
Dear Bedal,
Jackpot is a very fun game indeed. Some people can get to a high number, and then lose almost half of it. So Jackpot doesn’t
just add, it subtracts too, so you could be all over the place. Great game. 😀
Sincerely,
Wes
Dear Mr. Averys class,
I really liked those pictures you drew. My favorite game is Angry Birds, Monopoly, and chess. What are all of youre favorite games?
Sincerly,
Paul a 49er
Dear Paul,
Thank you for the comment. My favorite game is also basic Monopoly. I also like Froggy Jump, Angry Birds, and Unblock me.
Sincerely,
Ed S.
Dear Mr.Avery & class,
My favorite game is Twister. It’s such a fun game getting twisted like a pretzel. The Angry Birds project must of been hard to do.
Sincerely
Felice a 49’er
Dear Felice,
Thank you for the comment. The Angry Bird project were kind of hard to do. It involved a lot of teamwork and planning. Then when we did the sketch on the small piece of paper, we had to put it on to a giant piece of paper and double the size of everything.
Sincerely,
Ed S.
Dear Mr. Avery,
My favorite game growing up was probably checkers. I enjoyed the simple element of the game. I enjoyed winning, and enjoyed the ongoing battle between red and black. One of my sisters mastered the game and beat me almost every time I played. Oh well. 😐
Sincerely,
Wesley K.
Dear Mr. Avery,
My favorite game growing up is Capture the Flag. The reason that it is my favorite game is because you get to play with a lot of friends. Another reason that I like it is because you get to run past people and try to get the flag and run back without being tagged.
From your student,
Ryan S.
Dear Mr. Priciotta,
Hello! Those games sound like fun. Today most of us play video games like on the XBox, Playstaion 3 or 2, and games on many other electronics. Now that there are a lot of cool gaming systems not that many kids go outside these days.
Dear Ed,
The best part of the games Mr. Princiotta mentioned is that they don’t require any electricity or special equipment(unless of course you use a flashlight for hide and seek in the dark), just yourself and your imagination, and they are tremendous fun as well as good exercise. You should try them sometime… you might like them 🙂
Sincerely,
Liz P.
Dear mom,
I love manhunt which is what we call “hide and seek in the dark!” It is SO fun especially when there is quite a few people!
Sincerely,
Tessa
Dear Tess,
Tess, you must have had a fun time making those Angry Birds posters. I know you love playing that game. You and your friends did a great job on your posters.
-Allison W
Dear Mr. Avery and class,
I played many games growing up.
Some examples are capture the flag and hide and seek (in the dark).
– Mr. Princiotta
Dear dad,
I love doing those games too. I wish you could play those game with you. I love you.
Love,
Fiona
Dear Luke,
I had no idea you liked tag so much! We should play some time. We can also play my favorite game Twister. Mr. Avery’s game does sound fun doesn’t it 🙂
Sincerely,
Hannah
Dear Mr. Avery,
My favorite game I played growing up was just plain old tag. I just love running and tagging people (It’s especially fun when you tag them a little to hard and they fall. Your game also sounds like fun. I will try it some day.
From,
Luke
Dear Emma,
Hi Emma. It is so cool how you and your class made the Angry Bird posters. All of them came out great! I hope we get to do that again. Hope you had fun.
🙂
-Allison W
Dear Mr. Avery,
My favorite board game is clue. Although my mom always wins but I also like mouse trap. I usally don’t play the game I just make the course. My mom and I play a game called kick the can but it’s a little different. Instead of trying to kick the can, you have to try and nock over the can by throwing a frisbee at it. It’s really fun. We play it when we go camping. Everyone in the family plays it.
From your student,
Kristin
Dear class,
You all did an amazing job on these posters! I was so impressed with how hard you worked and how well you were able to transfer your sketch over to the large poster. It’s not an easy thing to double the size of your work!
You have so many great games like Angry Birds that you’re able to play now. When I was growing up, technology was very primitive. We didn’t have all the different types of technology that we do now. We played a lot of board games and many games outside.
My favorite board game to play was Mouse Trap. I used to love having to add all the pieces on to make a working trap! I know it’s a game that’s still around and some of you may even have played it before.
My favorite game to play outside was a game called Kick the Can. It was essentially like a combination of tag and Capture the Flag. We’d pick two teams. One team was considered to be “it.” We’d place something like a can or ball out in the open. The team that was it would have to tag players from the other team before they were able to kick the can. If a player from one team is able to kick the can before they are tagged, that team wins. If the team protecting the can is able to tag all the players from the other team, that team wins. We used to play it all the time for hours at a time. It was so much fun!
What are some of your favorite games to play? I’d love to hear from your friends, family, and you!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery,
I know I have not been around as long as other people, but I still had a favorite game growing up! My favorite game was Twister. I enjoy getting twisted together, with my brother and sister in a knot.
Sincerely,
Hannah K.
Dear Hannah,
Twister seemed like quite the game. I used to play Twister too. But getting tied in a knot with my two sisters wasn’t fun. I still find the game fun though.
Sincerely,
Wesley K.