Geometric Solids

  Objective: Design and construct nets for pyramids and prisims.  
  Materials: Pyramids, prisims, paper, pencil, masking tape, scissors.  
 
start with a blank piece of paper.
place your prism on top of the paper, and trace around the side which is touching the paper.
without lifting the solid, 'roll' it to an adjacent side, and then trace that side.
continue 'rolling' and tracing until you have traced all of the sides of your solid.
after you trace a side, you may wish to put a small piece of masking tape on that side to ensure that you don't trace it twice!
you will need to plan ahead to ensure that you have traced all of the sides and that you can roll from one to the next.
after you have drawn your net, take scissors and cut the net apart. Try to reconstruct the figure with tape.
 
 
  Objective: Recongize tessellations created with regular and irregular shapes in the environment.    
  Materials: Geometric solids, paper, pencil, scissors, tape.   
 
by tracing around the sides of the various geometric solids, sort them into two groups: those with one or mores sides built of shapes that tessellate, and those that have no sides which tessellate.
cut a piece of paper to make a rectangle approximately 10 cm by 20 cm.
from one side of the rectangle, cut a shape or design. Now move (tape) the piece you cut off to the opposite edge of the rectangle. Repeat with the other pairs of edges.
does the new shape that you have created tessellate? Why?
 
   
 
  Objective: Estimate and determine the surface area of a right rectangular prism, without using a formula.  
  Materials: Prisms, paper, pencil, calculator, ruler, scissors.  
 
select one of the right rectangular prisms provided.
trace around each of the sides of the prism you selected.
measure the length and width of each rectangle.
    how many rectangles in all?
     how many of the rectangles are the same size and shape?
using your calculator, calculate the area of each rectangle you traced.
add each of the areas together to determine the total surface area of the rectangular prism you selected.
repeat the above process with a new rectangular solid, but estimate the total surface area before you begin tracing. Compete against a friend to see who can make the best estimate!
Challenge: out of paper, build a rectangular solid with a surface area of 120 cm2.
 

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Manipulatives for the Upper Elementary
 

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