📐 Find the Missing Angle

How do you find a missing angle? If your students are starting to explore how to determine unknown angles, this is a fun activity to add to your angles unit! With this activity, students will practice looking at a variety of angles and use their subtraction skills to determine a missing angle. While some task cards give the whole angle measurement, some cards rely on students understanding that a right angle is 90° and a straight angle is 180°.

To play, students will find the missing angle on each card. They will then use the provided recording sheet to write their answers.

Through this activity, students will determine the measure of an unknown angle formed by two non-overlapping adjacent angles given one or both angle measures.

Tips for Differentiation + Scaffolding 

A team of dedicated, experienced educators created this resource to support your math lessons.

In addition to individual student work time, use this missing angle activity to enhance learning through guided math groups, whole class lessons, or remote learning assignments. 

If you have a mixture of above and below-level learners, check out these suggestions for keeping students on track with the concepts: 

🆘 Support Struggling Students

Help students who need help understanding the concepts by inviting them to reference previous assignments, posters, or anchor charts. Additionally, students can complete this activity in a 1-on-1 setting or with a small group of students. Students can also practice solving similar types of problems. As an example, have students practice only the cards with a right angle, then practice solving cards with a straight angle.

➕ Challenge Fast Finishers

Encourage students who need a bit of a challenge to create their own task cards with missing measurements. Students can also practice drawing precise angles with a protractor.

🛴 Scoot Activity

Place the cards around the room in numerical order and give each student a recording sheet. Assign students or pairs to a starting point card. Give students time to review the card and record their answer in the corresponding space on their paper. Students will rotate to the next card when you say, “SCOOT!” Continue in this manner until students return to their starting point. 

👋 Exit Ticket 

Use these cards as a formative assessment after your lesson. Pick a random assortment of cards and project them on the board for the whole class to see. Students can record their answers on a sheet of paper, sticky note, or their notebook. 

Plan lessons for all ability levels with our 10 Best Scaffolding Strategies! 

Easily Prepare This Resource for Your Students

Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to choose between the color PDF, black and white PDF, or editable Google Slides version of this resource. A recording sheet and answer key are also included with this download.

Print on cardstock for added durability and longevity. Place all pieces in a folder or large envelope for easy access. 

To keep the task cards out of pockets or under desks, punch a hole in the corner of each to place them on a binder ring. 

Sustainability Tip: Print a few recording sheets on cardstock and slip them into dry-erase sleeves. Students can record their answers with a whiteboard marker, then erase and reuse them. 

This resource was created by Kaylyn Chupp, a teacher in Florida and Teach Starter Collaborator.