The lesson asks students to use base-10 blocks: they count out 10 unit blocks, line them up touching each other to make a row, and then compare that row to a ten rod to show that 10 unit blocks and one ten rod are the same. The activity has students manipulate physical blocks (unit blocks and a ten rod) to form a larger composite object and to represent numbers 11–20 using rods and unit cubes on the student activity page.

Students are asked to use a geoboard and rubber bands to create a rectangle that is made up of two squares and then a rectangle composed of three squares. Students sort and combine attribute blocks (e.g., picking out all rectangles) and are prompted to show the two or three squares that compose a rectangle. In the wrap-up students use a geoboard to show and name multiple shapes (square, circle, rectangle, triangle) at once.

Students are asked to build basic two-dimensional shapes (squares, rectangles, triangles, circles) using pipe cleaners and straws and then place those shapes together to create objects (for example, a doghouse or an ice cream cone). Students use attribute blocks or a geoboard and rubber bands to compose pictures from multiple shapes (for example, a house or a boat that includes a rectangle and two triangles). Activities explicitly prompt students to create composite shapes by combining several basic shapes and to identify the shapes they used.

Students cut paper plates into two and four equal pieces, mix the pieces, and put them back together to recompose the whole plate. Students take two fourths and join them to make a half, and they use geoboards and rubber bands to divide and reassemble circles into halves and quarters. Students draw lines to divide circles into halves and quarters and match quarter, half, and whole circle shapes to their names on activity pages.

Students put paper-plate halves and fourths back together to create whole pizzas (Activity 1). Students fold plates and paper to create and count halves, fourths, and eighths and compare sizes. Students make a rectangle on a geoboard and are asked to divide it into halves and, if possible, fourths (Activity 2). Students cut pictures labeled as halves and quarters and sort/glue them into columns (Activity 3).

In Activity 2 (Option 2) students cut out provided two-dimensional shapes and place them to create a picture, with a challenge to use all of the shapes provided. The introduction has students stretch rubber bands on a geoboard to form a large square and then divide it into halves and fourths, naming the resulting rectangles, triangles, and squares as they create them.

The lesson's Skills list explicitly states students will "Compose 2D and 3D shapes that have defining attributes." Students make shape examples using geoboards, rubber bands, play dough, construction paper, pipe cleaners and straws (Day 2 Options), and they arrange poster cards and images on poster board, moving pieces so everything fits. The Exhibit Poster image and activity pages show the specific 2D shapes (square, rectangle, triangle, half-circle, quarter-circle, circle) and 3D shapes (cube, prism, cone, cylinder, sphere) that students identify and create.

Students use attribute blocks to build shapes (e.g., make a rectangle using 2 squares; make a square using 2 rectangles; make a square using 4 squares; make a triangle using 4 triangles). The Skills section explicitly lists "Compose two dimensional shapes to create a composite shape." Students also use a geoboard and rubber bands to form squares, rectangles, triangles, half-circles, and quarter-circles, and the Student Activity Page asks students to draw lines to turn given shapes into specified new shapes (e.g., turn a shape into 2 triangles or 2 squares).