Lesson Three:

Nets and Models

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Objective:  Students will demonstrate an understanding of how to construct various shapes such as pyramids, prisms, cylinders and cubes by drawing nets and constructing models of the shapes.

Grade: Three/ Four

Length of Lesson: 1 hour

GCO: Students will demonstrate spatial sense and apply geometric concepts, properties, and relationships.

Related SCOs:

·        4E1: draw various nets for rectangular prisms and cubes

·        4E2: construct models for various cylinders, cones, prisms, and pyramids

·        4E4: explore relationships among 3-D shapes

Materials:

·        Straws

·        Pipe Cleaners

·        Paper

·        Pencil

Procedure:

·        Students will make the net patterns for prisms, pyramids, cones and cylinders by hand on paper and cut them then proceed to fold them into the different shapes. This may be a bit of a challenge for some students to fold and construct the cylinders and if this is the case the student can move onto the next activity which involves the straws and pipe cleaners.

·        Students will be given straws and pieces of silly putty or sticky tack to construct the shapes at their desks and experiment with different types of pyramids such as hexagonal and pentagonal.

·        Students will be given enough time in class to experiment with the construction of the shapes so that they can fully understand the shape.

·        As in the previous lesson using nets the students will be asked to color each section of the paper nets that they have made in a different colour using their crayons or markers. The students will be asked to glue their nets together to make the shape. The new shapes will be added to the earlier prisms and cubes hanging from the ceiling to showcase the students work.

·        The class will conclude with a discussion on the activity and the many different forms of pyramids, prisms and other shapes that the students have chosen to construct. The teacher will explain to students the difference between hexagons and octagons, pentagons, etc. The teacher will ask the students how they could tell the difference between the shapes and will give some cues about the names of the shapes relating to the number of sides. An example would be: a hexagon = six. How many sides would this shape have?

Evaluation: The teacher will be able to evaluate the students’ progress by listening to the class discussion and keeping a record of thoughtful answers and questions that are brought up during the discussion. The teacher should walk around the room.

Inclusion Strategies:

Hearing Impaired: Visual aids will be used for those students who are hearing impaired and handouts will be given with instructions for the lesson. The hearing impaired student will be paired with a non-hearing impaired classmate and class discussion points will be written on the chalkboard for all students to see.

Visually impaired:  Visually impaired students will be paired with a student who is not visually impaired.  These students will be given the instructions orally.  These students will be able to know what is going on in the class discussions through hearing. As in the previous lesson their partner can make the nets with the help of the visually impaired student. The visually impaired student can be involved in the making of the models by feeling the models provided and trying to imitate it with the straws, their partner can help them place the pipe cleaner in the straw. The visually impaired student will be provided with models of the shapes in question so that they can feel the shape and make judgments about the properties that they feel.

Students of English as a second language:  Students where English is a second language should be provided with lots of visual support, as with students with hearing impairment.