3D Forms by 4th Grade

Last week-

One of the things our 4th grade finished last week were the large 3D forms with newspapers. I basically started each day the same way. I gave them as much newspaper as they needed, one 3 foot piece of masking tape and time. The challenge was to build something that would hold a book.

I actually spent longer on this than I intended because the kids just wouldn't give up. If it wouldn't hold up a book(s) they wanted to keep building and trying. So of course I let them! Everyone got into the building mode.

After a few attempts at 3D forms made with rolled paper for the edges one of the groups tried a solid form. The built from the inside out. They folded long pieces about 2-3 inches wide and then created a coil. They kept adding to the coil to form a large flat base. This was incredibly strong. Not only did it hold a book but 33+ lbs. of books. We could have stacked who knows how many on top. By the time I ran out of books, they started standing on it themselves to see how much it would hold. One brave group even had me stand on it. Wow was that fun. :~]

The final piece to this unit was shading the 3D shapes. I got out the chalk pastels and paper and we drew and shaded until our hands were too messy to continue. The next class period we used black paper instead of white or manila paper and WOW! What a sucessful project. Every kid got one done and they look amazing.