Who lives in a 3D shape like this?

In their book The Playful Classroom, Jed Dearybury and Julie Jones, Phd, state ‘Creativity is simply taking something you encounter every day (person, situation, idea …) and looking at it with fresh eyes. (p.48).

Building 3D shapes and describing their properties, now let me think ……

I could follow the worksheet, which gives the children a little picture of perfectly formed cube made from marshmallows and straws and invited them to count the edges and vertices. Not much fun there! Let’s check our rucksack for today’s expedition - straws, lollipop sticks, play dough – time for an adventure!

The Year 3 children arrived for their maths lesson to find the tables full of pots of colourful playdough, paper straws, plastic straws and lollipop sticks of all shapes and sizes. There were squeals of delight and lots of excitement. Keen to tap into this, the last thing I wanted to do was to tell them to sit down, plunge the classroom into darkness and make them listen to me, while watching a PowerPoint about 3D shapes! So, a simple, self-paced PowerPoint with audio allowed the children to revisit 3D shapes if they wished and clear anchor charts were available around the classroom. A small group of children worked with an adult.

Sometimes the simplest of change in a lesson can have the biggest impact. By giving the children different materials to use and the choice of which 3D shape they made, the children felt they had ownership of their learning. They experimented, took risks, collaborated, persevered, and laughed a lot! Which materials worked best, discussions about which straws were more stable ensued. Which 3D shape is the easiest to make and why? Why do some shapes fall over, and others don’t? Within no time we were exploring structural engineering.

Now it came to the describing part. Through the making process the children had used the vocabulary to describe their shapes – edges, vertices, faces. How much fun would it be if they could sit inside their shape and describe it! Inspired the children added playdough seats inside their shapes and then set about composing their description of their 3D shape.

With the app Green Screen by Do Ink, you can tell a story, explain an idea, and express yourself in truly creative and unique ways. You know what a "green screen" effect is, right? It's used in the movies to make Harry Potter fly, and it's used on TV to make it look like news announcer is standing in front of a weather map. We now have a portable green screen we can use, but for many years we used a cheap green double bed sheet pinned to the wall. 

The children took turns sitting in front of the green screen, recorded their video and then, using the simple app, placed themselves inside their shape and shared their finished video on Seesaw, for delighted parents to view. A playful adventure about making and describing 3D shapes. 

You can find this activity on Seesaw Can you build and describe a 3D shape? 

We have reached our destination 😀 Can you make and describe a 3D shape? @DoInkTweets @ICT_MrP #creativelearning @JakeMillerTech @Kdmiller4 pic.twitter.com/7PDQ5heWEp

— Thinking Adventures (@Thinkadventuk) October 22, 2021

 

Can you build those quads?

This week’s challenge - Can you build those quads?

A lesson about muscles and skeletons? A Year 3 geometry lesson? A class visit to the local gym for a workout or a visit to the local quad centre?

Quad means four and this week my Year 3 children set off on their expedition to find out more about polygons and quadrilaterals.  The destination or key questions for the week were:

Polygon Power

Can you spot the difference between a regular polygon and an irregular polygon?
Are all regular polygons also a quadrilateral?

Meet the Quadrilateral Family

Can you describe your shape? 

Can you make your shape?

The children started the week investigating powerful polygons using a simple PowerPoint. Allowing the children to link their learning to real life examples is essential and the children explored the classroom for real life examples and doodled polygons in their maths books.

It was then time to Meet the Quadrilateral Family. I’m a big fan of anchor charts. Like an anchor, the chart holds teachers’ and children’s thoughts and ideas in place. It can be displayed as a reminder and built upon. The children can use it, for example, to access vocabulary. I make clear, simple anchor charts using PowerPoint, which focus on the main facts and then we add to these during the expedition, a bit like a guidebook. A recording is added, accessed via a QR code, for those children who find reading a challenge.

 

With the main teaching points covered, it was time to set off on their own journey. Asking children to express their ideas in a single way does not allow all children to effectively showcase what they know, so I set up different activities or places of interest for them to explore.

The more decisions the children get to make in their learning the more likely they are to be engaged and motivated. So children always have the option of taking a detour and coming up with their own activities that they think will show what they have learnt. As usual this happen during this expedition and their idea is included below.

Geoboards

In the past I would have grabbed the peg boards and elastic bands and let the children experiment making shapes. I would then spend the rest of the lesson collecting elastic bands from around the classroom as they pinged here and there! Old elastic bands would snap, and children would focus more on the colours and thickness of elastic band they craved rather than the task in hand.

But now I use an app called GeoBoards by The Maths Learning Centre. The app allows the children to make shapes using a variety of ‘elastic bands’. Once they have made the shapes, they can label the shape. The children loved this app and quickly learnt how to use it. The children could work at their own level and loved the challenge of making such shapes as the rhombus and trapezium!

ChatterPix Kids

Children benefit from different ways to express their understanding - not all children thrive expressing their ideas in writing. ChatterPix Kids is a fantastic app that allows all children to achieve, no matter what their writing ability is, and I love activities like this that engage both sides of the brain.

Each child chose a quadrilateral and then designed a new member for the family.  Photos were taken, scripts written and recorded and then stickers added. The resulting videos allowed me to assess not only if the children recognised the shape and were able to describe its properties but also their use of the correct vocabulary.

 

Shape Table

Giving children an opportunity to play is something that disappears from the curriculum as children progress through the school. So, a table full of shapes, all shapes, and sizes, provided a range of play opportunities. They were sorted, described, made into pictures. The children found some shapes tessellated and a giant honeycomb (complete with bees) appeared. Paper copies of the shapes allowed the children to explore symmetry and the children used these to create a unique set of emojis named after their shape!

Seesaw

Follow the diversion! Some children asked if they could use Seesaw to draw some pictures using quadrilaterals. They decided to use the shapes and it proved to be more challenging than they thought! There was so much discussion about which shapes could be used and those which could not. What could a trapezium become? A skirt, a lampshade, a roof, a car, the list was endless. The squeals of delight when someone discovered two trapeziums could make a hexagon!

The rucksack has now been packed ready for our final geometry expedition of the half term - straws, lollipop sticks, play dough, I wonder where this expedition is heading towards?

Can you help Blackberry find her magic stars?

This term many children will venture down to the woods for their first experience of a Forest School session. Forest School practitioners and teachers will be looking for an activity that captures the children’s imagination, encourages them to explore the woods, be creative and use their senses. One of our favourite introduction activities is about Blackberry and stars. We usually run this activity with children aged 3-5 years. The activity involves mini shelter building, searching around the woods, collecting natural materials and lots of imagination. For children who have made magic potions before this activity provides a new hook for a familiar activity. Fancy having a go? Here we go then.

What do you need?

– a puppet

– a bag with one shiny star in

– a shiny star for each child

– potion pot for each child

– a few rolls of sellotape

– a bottle of magic potion – mix water, food dye and food essence. Peppermint and strawberry essence work well.

Before the session starts hide the stars around the woods and place the puppet, the bag and bottle in the seating area where the children will meet.

What do you do?

1. The children will be naturally curious to find out who the puppet is! Introduce the puppet and tell the children their name. Our puppet is called Blackberry. Tell the children the following story, acting it out and adapting as needed:-

In our wood live many different creatures. Some are big and some are small, some are long and some are short, Some are real. There are hedgehogs, birds and mice. Some are magical. There are elves, fairies and gnomes. Each of the magical creatures has a special job to do and Blackberry helps looks after the animals in the woods who have hurt themselves. Each day Blackberry makes special potions that will help the animals. She carefully collects natural materials and then mixes them together before adding some of her special pink potion. Finally she takes a shiny star from her bag, sticks it on a stick to make a wand and then waves it over the potion. Whoosh the potion is ready.

At the end of the day Blackberry goes home to her little house at the bottom of the oak tree. She carefully hangs her bag on a twig, before having tea and going fast asleep. But on Monday something terrible happened. During the night there was a terrible storm. Blackberry curled up and pulled her leaf blanket around her ears. She listened to the wind howling through the trees, and the thunder crackling through the trees. The next morning she crawled out of her house and looked around the woods. She smiled, all the trees were safe. But then she saw her bag of stars. “Oh no”, she cried. The bag had blown off the twig and was lying on the ground. Carefully Blackberry picked up the bag and looked inside. There was only one star left. She turned the bag inside out and shook it. No stars left. “The stars must have blown away in the wind, who is going to help the animals now?”, Blackberry wept.

2. You will probably find that the children will instantly suggest they help! Start by searching for the stars around the wood, ensuring that every child finds a star. Next get every child to find a stick and make a star wand. We just attached the star to the stick using sellotape. Don’t forget to practice waving the wands.

3. Give each child a potion pot and encourage the children to collect natural materials to make a magic potion. Talk about what materials they are using. What are they and where did they find them? Which animal will their potion help? What does their potion do? Does their potion have a name?

4. Add some magic potion to their pot. Invent some magical words and then wave your wand over the potion pot while chanting your magic words. Smell the potion, has it worked?

5. Finally leave the potions in the woods for Blackberry find. Encourage the children to find a special place in the woods and build a small shelter to keep their potion safe.

When the children visit the woods next time make sure you have left them a note from Blackberry and the animals to thank the children for all their hard work. Have fun!

A free Forest School Recipe card for this activity is available for this activity on our TES page
Forest School Recipe - Magic Spells