Daniel’s Party Planning

Daniel is excited because his friends are coming for a party! He plans to have different activities for them to do in his backyard. He grabs a piece of paper and starts to draw out a plan for the outdoor activities.

Daniel writes the word “backyard” on the top of his paper. Then he draws a big rectangle to represent the backyard. He draws a few circles on the page to remind himself where the trees are.

Daniel just got a bocce ball set and wants to set up an area for his friends to try it out. He remembers bocce ball is played in a skinny rectangular area. On the left side of his paper, Daniel draws 2 long parallel sides and connects them with 2 short parallel sides at right angles.

Daniel and his friends love to play mini golf. So, he wants to set up his own mini golf hole. In the bottom corner of his paper, he draws a right angle. Then he draws a diagonal line toward the top of the paper, to make the hole challenging. He finishes the shape by drawing a line that is parallel to the bottom. Daniel looks at his shape and thinks “That looks like a trapezoid.”

Daniel’s friends were talking about how much fun it is to play whiffle ball. Daniel knows there are a whiffle ball, bat, and bases in the garage, so he decides to set up a whiffle ball field. In the middle of his paper, he draws a diamond shape, like a baseball field.

After Daniel is done drawing the whiffle ball diamond, he notices that it doesn’t really look a diamond. He turns his paper so that the shape is resting on its side in front of him. His diamond is actually a square! It has 4 right angles, and all the sides are the same length.

For the last activity, Daniel wants to create an obstacle course for his friends. They all love running through an obstacle course to see who can complete it the fastest. In the top right corner of his paper, Daniel draws 2 parallel lines, then he connects them with the parallel diagonal lines.

Daniel’s plan for his party is finally complete! He looks at his drawing and notices all the shapes he drew. A rectangle for bocce ball, a trapezoid for mini golf, a square for whiffle ball, and a parallelogram for the obstacle course.

Daniel sits back and imagines how much fun he and his friends are going to have! Then, he realizes how much work he must do to get ready for the party. Daniel grabs his paper and runs outside to set everything up.