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When I asked the class to process 7 + 8 they all flagged in and after a few seconds proclaimed that the sum was 15. Now the fun began. I asked them how they arrived at the seemingly simple result. Their answers were startlingly different. A newer Mathlete proudly proclaimed I counted on my fingers from 7 to get 15; many said that they doubled 7 and added 1; some said that they doubled 8 and subtracted 1; and then it happened, a small number said that they borrowed 3 from 8 to make 10 (7 + 3) and then looked at what remained after they borrowed the 3 from 8 which was 5.

Dear Mathlete Parents and Students:

In geometry, the net of a polyhedron is an arrangement of edge-joining polygons in two dimensions that can be folded along edges to become the faces of the polyhedron.

We continued our exploration of volume ratios by looking at a hexagonal prism coffin box created by two sisters (3^rd grade and K) that was five times larger than the original template. Not only did they bring in their prism but also the template they created. The template was pasted together with many sheets of paper. The linear ratio of the four coffins we explored was 2:3:5:10, so they would be able to hold exactly

As a Halloween theme, we constructed hexagonal prisms in the shape of coffins. We learned to name solid prisms by the shape of their bottom (or base). This is a six sided base so therefore a hexagonal prism. 

Attached is a paper version of the coffin box that the children can staple to decorative origami paper or other hard stock construction paper and cut out the hexagonal prism. This is called a "net" (essentially, a two dimensional figure that can be folded into a solid). These coffin boxes can be given out as gifts and will hold eight pieces of small candy.