Using the State Curriculum: Mathematics, Grade 4

Popsicle sticks, coffee stirrers, or toothpicks, play dough, marshmallows, or putty, pictures of triangular pyramids, rectangular pyramids, triangular prisms, and rectangular prisms, graph paper, poster board, solid figures, index cards

Solid Figure Models

Students should use materials to build their own solid figures. Students may work alone or with partners. Provide pictures of triangular pyramids, rectangular pyramids, triangular prisms, and rectangular prisms with the dimensions of the edges marked.

Ask students to use their sticks and play dough to build one pyramid and one prism. (The play dough will keep the edges together at the vertices.) Provide graph paper in case students want to sketch out their models before building. Using index cards, students must record the names of their model figures and the number of faces, edges, and vertices. Monitor progress. When students are finished, ask peers to check one another's figures for accuracy of number and shapes of faces, edges, and vertices. Display figures in the classroom.

Ask students to compare their pyramids to their prisms by vertices, edges and faces.

Answers:

Mystery Solids

Assign students or groups to one solid figure. Groups must create a list of clues to be read aloud to reveal their solid figure. Students will use their solids to eliminate possible solids until they can guess the group's mystery solid.

Example:
Clue 1: I cannot roll. (This eliminates the cylinder and cone.)
Clue 2: I have at least one triangular face. (This eliminates the rectangular prism and cube.)
Clue 3: I have more than 6 edges. (Triangular pyramid is out.)
Clue 4: I have 6 vertices. (It can't be the rectangular pyramid.)
What am I? (I am a triangular prism!)

You may collect the students' clues and use this activity as a review later in the year.

Real World Collection

As an ongoing project, you may have students collecting pictures or descriptions of things in real life shaped like pyramids and prisms (possibly 3D examples as well). This can be done individually or as a class. Students can make a poster collage with a column for both types of solids. You can also have a space in your classroom set aside for this kind of display. A bulletin board can be interactive if it has removable vocabulary (velcro, magnets, etc.) for the parts of solids. Students can label the pictures on the collection board. This would be a great way for students to visualize the differences and similarities between pyramids and prisms every day.