Shapes and objects: Year 3: Planning tool

Expected level of development

Australian Curriculum Mathematics V9: AC9M3SP01

Numeracy Progression: Understanding geometric properties: P3

At this level, students identify and describe 3D objects and their geometric properties. Students develop their understanding of an object’s properties by creating models using a variety of materials. They explore common objects in the environment and explain the features that make them useful.

Guessing games such as ‘What am I?’ can provide a context to identify objects from a description of their geometric properties.

Students build solid models using familiar objects such as cubes to make prisms. Make explicit the number of edges, faces and corners (vertices). Use a table to compare objects according to their properties and describe any patterns.

Provide materials such as plastic straws and plasticine, pipe cleaners or similar for students to create geometric objects such as cylinders, spheres, prisms and pyramids. Pose questions to prompt students to create a different object, for example, changing a property such as the number of edges of a face of their object.

Use interactive software to explore geometric objects and their properties.

There is an opportunity to apply understanding of symmetry to investigating 3D objects. Students can explore symmetry and use geometric reasoning to solve challenge tasks.

Teaching and learning summary:

Investigate properties of geometric objects.
Make models of geometric objects and describe their features.
Identify geometric objects found on Country/Place.

Students:

apply their understanding of 2D shapes when investigating and describing properties of 3D objects
recognise, describe and name common geometric objects such as cubes, rectangular prisms, cylinders, pyramids, cones and spheres
identify an object from geometric clues such as edges, faces and vertices
identify and use conventional terms such as face, base, vertex (corner), angle, edge, side, when describing the properties of geometric objects
describe the similarities and differences between objects
construct geometric objects from familiar materials.

Some students may:

have not yet developed the language to describe the properties of a 3D object. Encourage discussion about geometric features and properties whenever possible to help students to develop a geometric vocabulary which they can use to share their observations.

The Learning from home activities are designed to be used flexibly by teachers, parents and carers, as well as the students themselves. They can be used in a number of ways including to consolidate and extend learning done at school or for home schooling.

Learning intention

We are learning about shapes and objects.
We are looking at the features that make a shape or object special, which we call its ‘properties’.

Why are we learning about this?

There are many examples of 3D objects around us.

What to do

1. Use the interactive Face painter: finding faces 1 to learn about 3D objects.

2. Fill in this table:

Object	Faces	Edges	Corners

3. Try making a model of one of the prisms or pyramids.

Use a plastic straw cut into lengths and playdough or BluTac. Connect the straw lengths together with the playdough or BluTac.

Here’s the start of a cube:

Success criteria

I can:

describe features of shapes and objects (what is special about them)
tell if something is 2D or 3D
describe a 3D object using terms such as faces, edges and corners
create a model of a 3D object.

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Planning tool

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