3D Shape Nets - More Than Meets The Eye

Last term we spent time learning about 2D and 3D shapes, using new vocabulary to describe and group them by their features.

This week we have been attempting to construct some of our own 3D shapes. The first step in doing this has been to create shape nets. These are the patterns that you can cut and fold to make a model of a solid shape.


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We were challenged to observe a variety of 3D shapes and try to draw the nets that could be used to construct them. It wasn't easy as we had to look without touching!



Some of us found it easy visualising the different faces that we would need to draw. Those who were successful used a ruler and made sure that they were accurate.

Bradley was one student who discovered that some shapes can have more than one net and still be folded to create the shapes correctly. For example, a cube has 11 possible nets that are all different.

Kaizen says, "I was pretty frustrated. I thought the cuboid would be easy, but it wouldn't fold up accurately. I realised that I was over-confident and needed to plan better without rushing".

Spencer did an amazing job to accurately construct an octagonal prism by drawing his own net.



Next week we will begin an art project that includes construction and some of our prior learning from last term around geometric patterns. We can't wait to get started.