Building with the Mind's Eye

Primary (Age 6 – 9)

Curriculum Goal

Primary: Geometry and Spatial Sense

  • Compose and decompose two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional figures.
  • Describe the relative locations of objects using positional language.

Context

  • This is a teacher-led activity that can be conducted with a whole class or small groups.
  • Students and the teacher sit on the floor in a circle.
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Appendix A

Part of our spatial toolkit...

Image linking to the Spatial Reasoning Lesson Toolkit. The image has various math manipulatives on top of a white table with the title in the middle

Materials

  • Coloured multilink cubes
  • Building with the Mind’s Eye Slide Deck (Appendix A)

Lesson

  • Before the lesson, construct simple 3D figures using different coloured cubes and note how to build the figure step-by-step. Alternatively, use the images and script provided in the slideshow (Appendix A).
  • Ask students to close their eyes.
  • Describe how to build each figure step-by-step. A script is provided in the presenter notes of the slide deck.
  • Ask students to visualize what the figure looks like in their mind.
  • Present multiple unique figures made from coloured multilink cubes, only one of which is the actual figure that was described.
  • Have students identify which figure they pictured and explain why the other figures do not match the given description.

Look Fors

  • Can children follow the instructions and select the correct figure described?
  • Can children explain why the other figures are not correct?
  • Do children use positional language to describe the relative location of each cube?

Extension

Related Lessons

An image linking to the Multilink Cube 3D Quick Image lesson

This lesson explores composing and decomposing 3D objects. Students build 3D objects when they are described by a partner.

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Appendix A

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