Mathematics

Intermediate

40 mins

Teacher/Student led

Learning Goals

Learning Outcomes

Lesson Files

+95 XP

What you need:
IWB/Projector/Large Screen

Nets and Isometric Drawing: Flat to 3D and Back

Explore how flat nets fold into 3D solids and how isometric paper lets you draw cuboids that still look three-dimensional. Count faces, edges and vertices on cubes and cuboids.

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1 Getting Started
2 Watch and Notice
3 Try It Together
4 Sketch the Net in Your Copy
5 Which Nets Fold Into a Cube?
6 Class Challenge
7 What Did We Notice?
8 What's Next
Pupil practice

1 - Getting Started ~3 mins

Today's question

If you flattened out a cereal box completely, what shape would you be left with on the table? And here is a piece of dotted paper. How can dots help us draw the same box again so it still looks 3D?

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - Watch and Notice ~7 mins

Watch two solids on the board. We will name every face, count every edge and pin down every vertex. Then we'll see the same idea on flat paper, two ways: as a net that folds up into the solid, and as an isometric drawing that lays the 3D shape onto dotted paper without squashing it.

Solid 1: a cube

Solid 2: a cuboid

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Try It Together ~10 mins

Each of us already has a printed cuboid net on our desk. Today we explore a 5 by 3 by 2 cuboid on the board. As one pupil rotates it on the IWB, the rest of us fold the matching paper net at our seats and check: does each flat face really map onto a face of the rotating solid? Name the face out loud as you fold it down: top, bottom, front, back, left, right.

5 × 3 × 2 cuboid: name every face

+15 XP

4 - Sketch the Net in Your Copy ~2 mins

COPYBOOK MOMENT

In your maths copy, sketch the net of a cuboid using three pairs of matching rectangles, and label which face folds onto which (top, bottom, front, back, left, right). Then on a fresh row, sketch the same cuboid on isometric paper at your seats, labelling the front, side and top faces of the finished 3D drawing.

+10 XP

Pupil practice

Module 6 · 2D and 3D Shape, Angles, Symmetry Shape & Space

Lesson 69 · Nets and Isometric Drawing: Flat to 3D and Back

Download Activity Book page (PDF)

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