I was keen to see what they could do so we got out some equipment to have a play.
Here are a few of the 3D objects we looked at and some of the drawings the kids did:
Suggestion #1 - like a rectangle with a square off the side.
Suggestion #2 - Like a cross
Suggestion #3 - lots of square bits
Suggestion #4 - A cross made up of 6 smaller squares
So we had the general idea that the net of a cube is made up of lots of squares - just not too sure about the details.
Suggestion #1 - it's a triangle with some stripes
Suggestion #2 - it's got more than 1 triangle
Suggestion #3 - think I've seen one before with a square and triangles coming off it
So we don't really have a very good idea about this one. Lots of opportunity to learn here.
Suggestion #1 - it's got 2 circle shapes on top of each other
Suggestion #2 - It's definitely got 2 circles somewhere
Suggestion #3 - It's got circles AND rectangles
Suggestion #4 - yep, I've seen this one before
As teachers, we learn so much from the "fails" of our students. The "correct" responses are fine but they don't in themselves give us much insight into the mathematical thinking of the students.
BUT the errors, the mistakes, the ones that aren't quite right - they are the ones that tell us so much about what our kids are thinking and how they "see" mathematics.