Cut Nets

Each of the nets of nine solid shapes has been cut into two pieces. Can you see which pieces go together?

Magnetic Personality

60 pieces and a challenge. What can you make and how many of the pieces can you use creating skeleton polyhedra?

Lighting up Time

A very mathematical light - what can you see?

A Chain of Eight Polyhedra

Stage: 2 Challenge Level:

Why do this problem?

This problem is an excellent opportunity to engage children in talking about and describing 3D shapes and relating them to the shapes of their 2D faces.

These cards might be useful for learners to use in pairs or groups.

Key questions

Why not list the shape of the faces of each 3D shape?

Can you begin to link pairs of shapes together?

Can you see another square/hexagon etc?

If you have found a chain, can you find a loop?

If you have found a loop, how many different ones can you find?

Possible extension

Learners could add some more 3D shapes and try to make a longer chain. Perhaps they could draw the shapes as in the problem.

Possible support

Suggest using these cards and listing some of the shapes of their faces. This list of faces that are given in the hints might be helpful.

Working systematically. Compound transformations. Polyhedra. Practical Activity. Interactivities. Cubes. Visualising. Tangram. Generalising. Sets of shapes.

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