Real-World Geometry

If your students are having trouble remembering the names of geometric solids, jog their memories with this post-holiday project. Ask students to bring in presents they received (or other items from home) that correspond to the shapes you are studying. For example, a board game is a rectangular prism, a baseball is a sphere, and a gel pen is a cylinder. If you school has a digital camera, you could take pictures of the items and post them for students to use as a review when test time approaches. Follow-up with a walk through the hallways, where students observe shapes in their environment. Create a class book titled, “Our Shape Walk.” Have each student create a page for a shape they saw and combine the pages for a book that can be used as a quick reference.