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Toothpick Gumdrop Geometry

We recently did a fun engineering activity building towers out of toothpicks and gumdrops. The kids loved it and spent a good portion of our morning building. While watching them, I came up with a simple hands on geometry lesson using the same materials.

In this post I will share a fun hands on way to teach geometric shapes and the difference between 2D and 3D shapes.





Toothpick Gumdrop Geometry:


For this activity you will need:

-Toothpicks

-Gumdrops

Using the toothpicks as sides and gumdrops to fasten them at the corners, have your child build some of the familiar 2D shapes like a square, a rectangle, a triangle, a trapezoid, and a parallelogram.


You can also build some of the 2 D shapes with more sides like pentagons, hexagons, octagons, and decagons.





Then try to build some of the 3D shapes like a cube, a rectangular prism, a triangular prism, and a pyramid.



Extend The Learning:

Learn more about geometric shapes from these online resources: 

3D Shapes from HomeschoolPop.com

 2D Shapes from TutorVista.com

 Common 3D Shapes from Math Is Fun

 3D Shapes I Know from Harry Kindergarten Music
If you enjoyed this post, check out:

 Hands On Fractions

 Aluminum Foil Boat STEM Activity

The Egg Drop STEM Challenge



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Comments

  1. itisreal.netJune 15, 2018 at 7:45 AM

    I also want to homeschool my kids so such creative ideas are very useful. Thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brandy NicoleJune 16, 2018 at 11:47 AM

      Thanks for reading :-)
      I love homeschooling my kids.

      Delete
  2. UnknownJune 15, 2018 at 6:41 PM

    This seems like a very creative and fun way to teach children. Coming up with 3D shapes adds some complexity to the lesson too. Great idea!

    ReplyDelete

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