Grade
5

Mobile Math: Trapezoids & Circles

Look at the mobile below. What do you notice? What do you wonder? What do you know?

A mobile with 2 strings is balanced. The left string has 3 trapezoids. The right string has 4 circles. What values could the trapezoids and circles have?

What is one set of possible values for the shapes?

  • If a circle has a value of 38.25, what would the value of a trapezoid be? How do you know?
  • If the value of the entire mobile is 2, what would the value of each shape be? How do you know?

If the value of the entire mobile is 4,800, what would the value of each shape be? How do you know?

What are other possible values for the set of shapes? What patterns or rules do you notice?

Printable Version

Google doc for printing and copying

Reference for Educators

Sample problems and solutions