Nets of 3D Objects

I don't think my kids have done much with nets before. It's important to be able to represent 3D objects in this way.

I was keen to see what they could do so we got out some equipment to have a play.

Here are a few of the 3D objects we looked at and some of the drawings the kids did:

Cube

Suggestion #1 - like a rectangle with a square off the side.

Suggestion #2 - Like a cross

Suggestion #3 - lots of square bits

Suggestion #4 - A cross made up of 6 smaller squares 

So we had the general idea that the net of a cube is made up of lots of squares - just not too sure about the details.


Tetrahedron

Suggestion #1 - it's a triangle with some stripes

Suggestion #2 - it's got more than 1 triangle

Suggestion #3 - think I've seen one before with a square and triangles coming off it

So we don't really have a very good idea about this one. Lots of opportunity to learn here.

Cylinder

Suggestion #1 - it's got 2 circle shapes on top of each other

Suggestion #2 - It's definitely got 2 circles somewhere

Suggestion #3 - It's got circles AND rectangles

Suggestion #4 - yep, I've seen this one before

As teachers, we learn so much from the "fails" of our students. The "correct" responses are fine but they don't in themselves give us much insight into the mathematical thinking of the students.

BUT the errors, the mistakes, the ones that aren't quite right - they are the ones that tell us so much about what our kids are thinking and how they "see" mathematics.