All+Saints

CSP in action at All Saints primary. Evolving use of Quality Criteria including photographic expectations of children



YEAR 4 MATHS CHALLENGE From Diana's Number Sharks

On Thursday we welcomed a new boy into our class - Tim (nice but dim - and stuffed) - who needed a bit of help with his shapes. He was ok with 2D, but 3D just stumped him. Luckily he had brought with him some envelopes and asked the children to use the contents to make something to help him remember the names and properties of 3D shapes. Each envelope contained: 6 nets for 3D shapes (including a trapezoidal prism!); 6 3D shape name labels; six labels of properties of those 3D shapes. What they did with them was entirely up to the children. Here are some of the comments I overheard:

I think we need to make them. Maybe the labels go with the shapes. Look - isn't mine the same shape as yours? No, mine's got a square on the bottom. Can you try and fold that one? Can you help me, I'm not very good. I haven't got a clue what to do. Fold along the lines. Cube! We're putting them together with their lablels. Is this maths? It's certainly hard! What's a trapezoidal prism? We can just guess where that one goes.

After about half an hour of focussed activity, each group had miraculously produced a set of 3D shapes, complete with name and property labels. They then went round to look at each set, seeing what had been done differently, and if everyone had got it right and judging whether Tim would find it a useful learning tool. And they had all correctly labelled the trapezoidal prism! A real buzz.