Spring SAVY 2017, Day 3- Discovering the Third Dimension

Posted by hallep on Tuesday, February 14, 2017 in Grade K, SAVY.

It was another super Saturday with your mathematicians. As we used new math language to communicate ideas, as we hypothesized and tested, as we created and constructed…it’s amazing that these learners are only in kindergarten!

This week, we explored the world of 3D solid figures. We created pyramids and prisms with toothpicks and marshmallows, as well as K-Nex, and began combining creations as our collaboration skills are growing. Next week we will look at cross sections, and begin taking apart 3-D shapes to discover the net from which they are formed. This link provides hundreds of free paper models of polyhedral: http://www.korthalsaltes.com

In exploring both 2-D and 3-D shapes, we are becoming fluent in considering similarities and differences. We are spotting polyhedra [solids with flat faces] and non-polyhedra [spheres, cones, cylinders] in our everyday world!

The students really enjoyed our experiment to determine what shape paper column is strongest [can hold the most books]! The cylinder beat the triangular prism and the rectangular prism by far. Here’s a quick video of the experiment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jGPlh7NSSQ You might be on the lookout for the shape of columns in buildings and parking garages this week. What shape are the columns? Are they on the inside of the structure to serve their practical purpose of supporting beams or arches? Or are they exterior, lending support and adding beauty to the structure?

This week was also tessellation and transformation day. The spatial visualization to be able to identify and communicate location is a fun puzzle for these young learners. Your students amazed me with how readily they understood the advanced concept of transformations [slide, flip, turn], and could begin to identify multiple lines of symmetry. These skills became fun when we began tiling with pattern blocks. They tried sketching a few tessellations themselves. We also looked at the amazing tessellations of M.C. Escher. It was another fun, full SAVY math morning!