In the frame: Ship shape

There are very few good books out there focusing on three-dimensional shapes, but Captain Invincible and the Space Shapes by Stuart J Murphy (HarperCollins, ISBN 0064467317) is one of the best. In this action-packed intergalactic adventure, the properties of six regular 3D shapes are reinforced through the use of their faces and vertices (corners) to fight space dangers.

At this stage in children’s mathematical development they find it hard to draw 3D shapes, so it is the doing and talking about the shapes that is most important. This book will help them to remember the properties of shapes and to visualise them.

Synopsis

Captain Invincible and his space-dog, Comet, must use their space shapes to deal with all kinds of dangers. Each shape utilises its own particular properties to deal with anything from a meteor shower to a cloud of poisonous gas. For example, the square faces on the cube shoot out radar beams in all directions and the cone pulls in poisonous gas through its circular base and sends out clean air through its vertex. Using these shapes, will the two pals make it safely back to Earth?

Space shape activities

• Take your class on a shape walk around the school, looking for examples of the 3D shapes. Photograph the shapes and make models of them back in the classroom using commercially produced sets of 3D shapes or discarded packaging. Display each model with its accompanying photograph.
• Visit your local supermarket, and allocate one display stand and one shape to each child. Use tally marks to help count the different packaging shapes and collate the results into a chart back at school. Which is the most popular shape for packaging? Which is the least popular? Were there any shapes you could not find? Make wanted posters for the missing or rare shapes, listing the properties of each shape and what it might be needed for.
• Use a simple Carroll or Venn diagram to sort 3D shapes according to their properties. Criteria can include shapes that roll, have circular faces, have curved faces, have two different kinds of faces, and so on. Explore sorting for two criteria and photograph the results. Print out and use them to make a ‘sorting’ book.
• Make repeating patterns by threading 3D shape beads. In pairs, each child can make their own repeating pattern and then describe their pattern for their partner to make. Compare the resulting bead patterns – are they both the same?
• Collect some small boxes, such as individual cereal boxes, and ask the children to estimate how many 1cm cubes will be needed to fill the box. Which box will hold the most? Which box will hold the least? Test the predictions and display the results next to the boxes. If you have sets of other small 3D shapes, for instance spheres, invite the children to predict whether each box will need more or less of that shape to fill it. Test the predictions and try to explain the results.
• Continue the space theme by asking the children to design tickets to fly on a rocket to Planet Vij. Adult single tickets ‘cost’ 24 faces; children’s tickets cost 12 faces. Draw, stamp or stick printed shapes on the ticket to the required number of faces. Every member of the family must have a different ticket. Can the children make enough tickets to take their whole family to Planet Vij and return home, or will they be stuck there?
• Give each child six identical squares of thin card and a roll of masking tape, and challenge them to make a cube. Follow this up by giving them four identical rectangles and two squares. Can they make a cuboid? Which 2D shapes would they need to make other 3D shapes?
• Make a cube with six square, interlocking pieces. Open it out carefully to show the children the net and draw it quickly on squared paper. Then, using more interlocking pieces, challenge the children to find other nets that will make a cube. Encourage them not to click the pieces into a cube but to just fold and support to check. (There are 11 different configurations that work and many more that don’t!)
• Play ‘Always, Sometimes, Never’. You will need two bags: one containing a selection of 3D shapes and the other containing the word cards always, sometimes and never. Put more copies of always and never than sometimes in the bag as sometimes is more difficult. Then pick a shape and card out of the bags and say a fact about the shape that is always, never or sometimes true, depending on the word card that is selected.