Surface Area, Volume, and Coordinate Grids....OH MY!

In math, we are deep into our geometry unit.  Right now, the students are learning about solid shapes, nets, surface area, and volume.  We will be coming upon plotting points on coordinate grids very soon.  So I thought we could combine all of those for our concept lesson today.

I gave the students a set of coordinates that, if connected together, created a cube.  Let me tell you, creating that is no piece of cake!  My hats off to the people who make those coordinate grid pictures for a living.  Just getting the pieces to connect in a way that made sense was tough!  But enough about that...back to the lesson ;)

The kids worked in pairs to put the "puzzle", as they called it, together.  This was really, really tough for some of them.

I let the students work in pairs to complete this project.  Since they had never plotted points before, I didn't want them to sit there doing nothing.  This proved to be the right move for my class at this time.  They definitely needed the double brain power!  This part was REALLY tricky for them.

Once the grid was complete, the student then went to work on finding out the surface area of the net they created, as well as the volume of the eventual solid shape.  They were allowed to cut the shape out if they wished to do so, or felt that doing that would help them in anyway.

Here is the finished product.  I did let the students cut out the cube and put it together (which they loved).

The kids had a GREAT time doing this.  I could see the wheels spinning in their heads trying to figure out what the picture was going to be!  Then, once the picture was done, it was smooth sailing for them!


You can pick up the templates for this at my TpT Store here.  There are two cubes and two rectangular prisms included.  And, trust me, it makes a cute bulletin board ;)