Busy, busy, busy

Busy....will be the description of my life from now until the end of school it feels like :(

So on the plane coming back today I read the SkyMall magazine to alleviate some of my fear of flying (like this helped).  I found it quite comical thinking, "Who would really buy this overpriced stuff?" I mean nothing comes in under 40 dollars!! All of it is particularly useless as well.....its just a hodgepodge of the weirdest things I've ever seen but I've got to admit it was entertaining to the say the least...in a bad infomercial you-cannot-stray-away-from-kind of-way.

Well low and behold, after work (yes I worked after getting up at 5 this morning to board a plane!) what do I see?  Would you believe.....a tricycle stroller from SKYMALL...I SWEAR!!! I did a double take!!!!  I wasn't sure what to think. First, I've never see these things in real life and second, really? today? and in a relatively small town?  I couldn't decide if it made my day in a good way or not? It was....well entertaining at least :)

So...working at camp.  We were building with Magna Blocks (LOVE THESE THINGS- so fun...even for me...I did not admit that....ok I did) .  This got me thinking about my math classes and talking about 2-D vs. 3-D shapes with kids.  I asked some of the kids what this shape was? Triangle, was correct as I suspected.  But when I built a triangular prism or pyramid...that was a triangle too (when I asked--even with the 2 shapes side by side)

This got me thinking how if you point to a Unifix cube or eraser calling them by their correct name (either rectangular prism or cube) can be very important at a young age.

I love to just build with the kids...its so fun to see what they come up with.  I'm sure I'll post more about this soon.....Happy Wednesday Everyone!

 

How do you address 2-D vs. 3-D shapes in your classroom? Do you ever use manipulatives to help with this and if so which ones?