Three-Dimensional Objects in the Classroom

April 28th, 2016

I'm currently doing Service Learning in my old fifth grader teacher, Mrs. Nowicki's, classroom. Right now in math, the class is discussing three-dimensional shapes and their names. On Friday the 22nd, Mrs. Nowicki began math and asked the class to point out and name 3D objects in the classroom. One student pointed out a bin holding filing folders and said it was a rectangular prism. Another student pointed out a stack of sno-cones in the back of the classroom used for science experiments and said it was a cone. One final student pointed out the clock on the wall and said it was a cylinder, which another student immediately disagreed with. A discussion began among all the students. Mrs. Nowicki asked the second student why she didn't think the clock was a cylinder. The student replied, "It's not tall enough to be a cylinder." Mrs. Nowicki then said, "If you took the face of the clock off and all of the gears out of it, it would be empty on the inside. Couldn't you then fill it with something else like water?" The student replied that someone could do that and said "I guess the clock is three-dimensional because you could fill it with something, so it must be a cylinder." The students then discussed as a class the different types of three-dimensional objects identified in the room and and why they could be classified as a certain object.

I really liked the way Mrs. Nowicki handled this situation. I thought it was interesting how she helped this student understand three-dimensional objects by asking if she could fill the clock with something if it were empty. It was a nice early introduction to volume, one that I think will help her students understand the concept of volume very well. I also really liked how Mrs. Nowicki asked her students to determine 3D shapes in their classroom. The shapes that they found will be examples that they can remember when they are struggling with a certain object. For example, the student who struggled to understand that the clock was a cylinder will remember what a cylinder looks like because the time was taken to explain why the clock is in fact a cylinder.

This video is useful for coming up with every day examples of three-dimensional shapes and helping students remember the names of several of the most common 3D shapes. The original source of the video can be found here.