3D Shapes (Station Teaching)

With such a big Maths Curriculum to cover in the senior classes, it can be difficult to have time for lots of hands on activities. This week it was great to put the text book aside and use station teaching to explore 3D shapes.

First of all, we did a general introduction on 3D Shapes and a recap on what the children already knew about 3D shapes. This interactive was very effective:

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Then I did station teaching, these are the stations we used in my classroom.

1. Construct 3D shapes

The children were assigned a 3D shape to make. They had to figure out how many cocktail sticks and pieces of playdough they would need to make the shape.  Lollipop sticks and marshmallows are also useful materials for this activity. Afterwards, the children recorded how many faces, edges and vertices their shape had and we made a grid together on the board to recap on the lesson.

2. Make a net of the 3D Shape

You can download some templates to print on SEN Teacher. Again, the children identified and recorded the properties of the shapes.

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3. Find examples of 3D shapes in school environment

We used iPads at this station. Cameras could also be used or if your school does not have these resources, the children could make a list of objects they found. They surprised me with some of the examples they found around the school.

4. Interactive Games

I always like Interactive Sites for Maths games so I chose 1-2 games based on 3D shapes for the children to consolidate their learning.

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You can download banners and posters for 3D shapes on Teachers Pet.

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New Year Activities

Unfortunately, the Christmas holidays are coming to an end....they never seem long enough. Here are some of the activities I will be doing the first day back to ease the children (and myself) back into school.

New Year's Resolutions

Always a good way to get children thinking how they can make changes to their lives at school, home and in the community.  The free differentiated templates can be downloaded here.  It can also be a good activity to remind children of how to present their work (use of capital, punctuation, cursive writing etc.)

Nollaig na mBan/Women's Little Christmas (History)

If you are returning to school on the 6th of January, it is traditionally known as 'Women's Christmas'. There is a lovely powerpoint that you could show the children available on nollaigshona.ie

New Year Prayer

 I do this at the start of the school year, but usually do it in the New Year also. 

Free Writing

It is a nice way for children to recap on their holidays before sharing it with the rest of the class. I usually set a timer for 10-15 mins to give them a chance to write about their holidays.

Happy New Year everyone!