Building Blocks and Spatial Reasoning

Have your child build a toy (e.g. robot, building, etc) out of legos or other interlocking cubes. Then they should create instructions for someone else to build the same toy without looking at the original. After the second person attempts to build the toy from the instructions, help the child revise the instructions. Encourage the child to include several of the following descriptions in their instructions:

*top view on grid paper (free online)

*front view on grid paper

*right side view on grid paper

*3-D drawing on isometric drawing paper (free online)

*verbal instructions

*mat view from the top with numbers of cubes in each column written in

*computer-generated isometric drawing with x,y, and z coordinates

https://www.nctm.org/Classroom-Resources/Illuminations/Interactives/Isometric-Drawing-Tool/

This lesson was adapted from the Investigations in Number Data and Space (1998) curriculum unit, Seeing Solids and Silhouettes.

https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Solids-Silhouettes-Geometry-Investigations/dp/1572327456