Your students might investigate the use of polyhedra in the real world through contexts such as playground equipment such as domes, shapes of crystals, construction of buildings such as wharenui, sculptures, and terrariums. This could range from cultural motifs to favourite colours, patterns or images. For example, students could be given the opportunity to decorate a model of their favourite polyhedra solid in a style of their choosing for a class display. This unit is focussed on the construction of specific geometric shapes and as such is not set in a real world context. There are ways that it could be adapted to appeal to the interests and experiences of your students. restricting the number of models that students are asked to make, beginning with simpler solids such as cuboids and square based pyramids.providing standard nets students can use to make models and asking them to experiment with variations to those nets.providing pre-made versions of solid models that students can refer to when making their own.providing connecting shapes, such as geoshapes or polydrons, so students can experiment with folding different configurations of shapes.The learning activities in this unit can be differentiated by varying the scaffolding provided or altering the difficulty of the tasks to make the learning opportunities accessible to all students.

Pyramid solid shapes