Polyhedrons

Until now, we have seen the construction of different flat figures with some materials. However, today we are going to see how to construct polyhedrons with our students. First of all, we have to know what are we talking about, don't you think?

Geometric bodies are any object that takes up a three-dimensional space. They include the polyhedrons and round bodies. These last ones have, at least, one of these faces curved. Nevertheless, the polyhedrons are formed by flat faces, vertexes and edges. 

In the following video, we can find a clear and easy explanation about polyhedrons to show to our students in class. 

But, how can we make polyhedrons with our kids? There are many ways and some of them are really simple. 

Last week, we attended a workshop about structure in the faculty and we were building some figures with gummies and spaghetti. I found these materials really useful for the construction of polyhedrons because they allow children to distinguish perfectly between vertexes and edges. Moreover, there is no danger because the spaghetti doesn't poke (as some sticks of wood do) and the gummies are suitable to join the spaghetti. The only challenge is that they don't break! Here, I have added some pictures of the experience: 

Apart from these materials, we can use whatever we want, like bars or rods and plasticine for the vertexes. There are also magnetic games that we can buy and allow children to build the figures easier and quicker, but it will depend on the availability of the game at school.