Intermediate
40 mins
Teacher/Student led
+65 XP
Teacher-led from the board. Pupils do not need a device, but can follow on one.

Stack, Roll or Both: Building with Solids

In this lesson pupils explore solid shapes and decide if they stack, roll or both. They link flat faces to stacking for building towers and curved faces to rolling. Learn how a cylinder can do both jobs.

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    1 - Getting Started ~3 mins

    Illustration for Getting StartedIn a shop, food tins stand in a tall tower, each tin sitting steady on the one below. Now picture a tower made of footballs. Look and think: what feels different?

    2 - Watch and Notice ~8 mins

    Four solid shapes are ready. A solid shape is one you can hold, not a flat drawing on paper.

    Watch each shape. Before it moves, look: is it resting on a flat face, or is every side curved?

    When a shape sits still on a flat face so you can build a tower, we say it stacks.

    When a shape moves away because it has a curved face and no flat face to rest on, we say it rolls.

    When a shape can sit still on flat ends and also move on its curved side, we say it does both.

    3 - Try It Together ~10 mins

    Today we sort solid shapes by what they can do. We place the cube, the sphere, the cuboid, then the cylinder. Before each one moves, think: Stacks well, Rolls, or Both. Then we agree as a class before the shape is moved.

    Stacks, rolls or both?

    4 - Write One That Stacks and One That Rolls ~3 mins

    COPYBOOK MOMENT

    In your maths copy, write one solid that stacks and one solid that rolls.

    Word bank on the board: cube, sphere, cuboid, cylinder.

    Stacks: ______    Rolls: ______

    5 - Class Challenge ~8 mins

    Sort each solid together. Flat face or curved face: which job does it do?

    Sort the solids

    Pupil practice
    Module 6 · Shape and Space: 2D, 3D, Position and Turns Shape & Space
    Lesson 68 · Stack, Roll or Both: Building with Solids
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