Studio Aletheia · The Center for Quantitative Studies
6.MGSR.1.2SC 6th Grade Math
Practicing Nets for Prisms & Pyramids
Lesson 32 · Guided Practice, Nets of Prisms & Pyramids
Yesterday you built your first nets. Today you'll practice creating nets for a wider variety of prisms and pyramids, checking your work by folding and comparing with a partner.
Learning Targets and Success Criteria
Today's mini-lesson shows that a single solid can be unfolded in more than one correct way.
What I will learn
- I can create a net for a triangular prism.
- I can create a net for a square or rectangular pyramid.
- I can identify an incorrect net and explain what's wrong with it.
- I can compare two different correct nets for the same solid.
What success looks like
- I can draw an accurate net for at least two different prisms.
- I can draw an accurate net for at least one pyramid.
- I can spot a missing or mismatched face in someone else's net.
- I can explain that a solid can have more than one correct net.
Build fluency creating nets for a variety of prisms and pyramids.
The words we'll use in today's lesson.
These terms will carry through today's mini-lesson, Data Lab, hands-on activity, journal, and exit challenge, and they'll keep coming back all year.
Net
A two-dimensional pattern that can be folded up to form a three-dimensional figure.
Prism
A three-dimensional figure with two identical, parallel bases connected by rectangular faces.
Pyramid
A three-dimensional figure with one base and triangular faces that meet at a single point.
Where this shows up in the real world.
Thinking like a mathematician is not just a school skill. It's what people get paid to do every day, in jobs you may not have heard of yet.
Checking Every Fold Before It's Cut
Before a real material gets cut, architects and engineers double-check that a net's faces line up correctly, because a mistake on paper becomes an expensive mistake in material. Practicing to catch errors in a net today is practicing the exact quality check professionals run before construction.
One Solid, More Than One Net
Today's mini-lesson shows that a single solid can be unfolded in more than one correct way.
Yesterday you built a netA two-dimensional pattern that can be folded up to form a three-dimensional figure. by counting faces and sketching how they connect. Here's something worth noticing: the same solid can have more than one correct net, depending on which edges you choose to keep connected and which ones you cut apart.
A prismA three-dimensional figure with two identical, parallel bases connected by rectangular faces. like a triangular prism has two triangular bases and three rectangular faces, no matter how you arrange them in the net. A pyramidA three-dimensional figure with one base and triangular faces that meet at a single point. always has exactly one base surrounded by triangles, but those triangles can be arranged around the base in different ways and still fold correctly.
Today, you'll create nets for new solids and compare your net with a partner's. If they look different but both fold into the correct solid, you've both found valid nets, and that's worth checking by actually folding them.
Adapted from Studio Aletheia's The Center for Quantitative Studies curriculum library, drawing on mathematical resources and the SC CCR Mathematics Standards.
Materials for the Data Lab.
- A. Scissors
- B. Grid paper or plain paper
- C. Tape (to test folding)
- D. Your Data Journal
- E. A ruler
For every net: count the faces on the solid, name each face's shape, sketch the connections, then fold to check.
Compare Two Nets
Today's Data Lab has you build a net and compare it with a partner's different but equally correct net.
Net Swap Challenge
Trade nets with a partner and test whether their net folds correctly, without seeing the original solid first.
Data Journal Entry
Accountability Checklist
Can a Solid Have More Than One Net?
Explain whether a prism or pyramid can have more than one correct net, and why.
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