Kindergarten to Grade 3 Geometry and Spatial Sense

After students have completed their skeletons, invite students to show their skeletonsto the class and to explain how they constructed the skeletons. Ask questions, such as:• “How are all the skeletons alike?”• “How are the skeletons the same as the solid three-dimensional figures? How are theskeletons different from the solids?”• “What was easy about constructing the skeletons? What was difficult?”Next, have students dismantle their skeletons and record a riddle about the skeleton onan index card. Students can follow the example of the riddle for a rectangular prism onthe chart paper.After students have composed their riddles, have them reassemble their skeletons,place them in paper bags, and attach the riddle cards to the bags with paper clips.WORKING ON ITHave students exchange riddle bags with a partner. Ask them to read their partner’sriddle and use it to build the same skeleton using drinking straws and small clumps ofmodelling clay.After students build their skeletons, have them remove their partner’s skeleton fromthe paper bag and compare the two skeletons. If they do not match, have students makethe necessary changes so that the two skeletons are congruent.Have students select a different partner, trade riddle bags, and construct and compareskeletons.REFLECTING AND CONNECTINGAfter students have constructed several skeletons by following the riddle clues, askquestions, such as the following:• “What was easy about constructing the skeletons? What was difficult?”GRADE 2 LEARNING ACTIVITY: PROPERTIES OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL SHAPES• “How are the skeletons like the solid three-dimensional figures? How are theskeletons different from the solids?”• “Which figure has the fewest edges? How many edges does it have?”• “Which figure has the most edges? How many edges does it have?”• “Which figure has edges that are all the same length?”• “Which figure has edges that are different lengths?”• “Which figure has edges that form a square (triangle, rectangle)?”• “What did you learn about three-dimensional figures from this task?”Appendix C: Grade 2 Learning Activities 131