Lesson on Nets with 3-D Objects

I had a good little lesson on introducing nets to gr.8's.  I looked at the investigate in the textbook and then expanded on it.  I had the class in groups of 3 and each student in each group had a different object.  The students were instructed to trace each face of the object onto a piece of paper and then label each face A, B, C, ....  They were then asked to cut out each face.  With the face pieces, I then asked them to arrange the faces in a way that if it was drawn on the paper, it could be cut out and folded to create their object.  Once they thought they had it they were to trace it onto a new sheet paper, using solid lines for the lines that should be cut and dotted lines for those that should be folded.  Once they were done, I collected them all and then randomly handed them out.  Each student was then to cut out and fold on the lines according to how the other student had drawn it.  They were not allowed to change anything and they had to see if they could actually create the figure.  Most of them worked, but not all of them.  This was a great learning tool for a few people that were struggling with getting them drawn.  Once they actually had one to build, it "clicked" for almost everyone.  Once each object was built, they were to put them up on the board, and the student that the object originally belonged to went up to the board and drew their "net" beside the object.  This again was a great teaching tool, using all the examples on the board, I was now able to explain what a net is and how there can be different nets for one particular object.  Many students struggle with nets, so I definitely think this hands on activity helped all the students learn and understand how to create a net much better than if I had just taught the lesson traditionally.