Polyhedra in the Classroom - . The unit presented here uses the objectives found in Unit 14 of Glencoe's Interactive Mathematics, but the activities have been designed so that students can take extra time on specific mathematical ideas. Shaping Up - This delightful story involves circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles and how they live together. The story can be told on the flannel board. Not only is this activity excellent for recognizing shape, there is a moral to the story that helps children see the relationship of mathematics to everyday life.
Crystals are real world examples of polyhedra.
The salt you sprinkle on your food is a crystal in the shape of a cube. Tangrams - This unit for grades 4 through 6 uses tangrams to compute the area of polygons without formulas. In the process of doing so, the terms congruent and similar are introduced. Throughout our activities we have asked the students to respond to the concepts of tessellations. They will write definitions and assess how well their groups worked together.