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
