NAME ______________________________ DATE _______________

FAMILY LETTER

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About the Mathematics in This Unit

Dear Family,

We are beginning a new unit in mathematics called Build a Block, Build a Wall. This geometry unit focuses on three-dimensional shapes. In this unit, students look for and identify three-dimensional shapes in the real-world as they go on Shape Hunts in school and at home. They create, identify, describe, compare, represent, and build with 3-D shapes. They also explore the relationship between 2-D and 3-D shapes as they match the faces of Geoblocks—a set of related three-dimensional wooden blocks—to corresponding 2-D shapes.

Throughout this unit, students will be working toward these goals:

Benchmarks/Goals Examples
Understand words that describe relative position.
  • • above

  • • on top of

  • • below

  • • beneath

  • • beside

  • • next to

  • • in front of

  • • behind

Identify and describe the overall size, shape, and features of familiar 3-D shapes.

“It has a triangle on one side.”

“It's big.”

“It would make a good ramp.”

“It looks like a piece of pie.”

“One part is pointy.”

A wedge-shaped piece of wood.

Make 3-D shapes. Twelve cube towers, in two rows of six, make a rectangular prism. Next to this, a ball of clay makes a sphere.
Combine shapes to make 3-D shapes. Four blocks in a row make a square prism.

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Table of Contents

Investigations 3 in Number, Data, and Space®, Student Activity Book Unit 1 Counting People, Sorting Buttons Unit 2 Counting Quantities, Comparing Lengths Unit 3 Make a Shape, Fill a Hexagon Unit 4 Collect, Count, and Measure Unit 5 Build a Block, Build a Wall Unit 6 How Many Now? Unit 7 How Many Noses? How Many Eyes? Unit 8 Ten Frames and Teen Numbers