Cardboard building shapes – polyhedra for home and the classroom

This took a lot of trial and error! I came up with a set of regular polygons that you can cut out of standard 3 mm corrugated cardboard. The edges snap together so you can make a lot of shapes. I cut this out this weekend and used them this week with 2nd - 7th graders for two days, doing math explorations. They worked great. The edges are “grabby” enough to hold together well, not too grabby that they can’t come apart easily, and the shapes are surprisingly durable. I thought they’d be worn out after two days but they look like, and work like they’re new.

This is inexpensive quality material for a classroom. You’ll want to cut one of each of the pdfs from single-wall cardboard for each set. In the classroom, one set is good for 4-5 kids to explore with and build the Platonic solids.

If you make some and try them out, I’d love to hear about it. Enjoy!

NB: Any time you’re cutting corrugated cardboard, keep an eye on your GF. I’ve had corrugated catch fire before. I was glad I was watching!

PS: I just noticed this picture file’s name is IMG_1234.jpg. I had to check my photo album to see if this really was the file name or if it was a strange renaming when uploading to this forum. It’s the real name… how fun!


mathspace.xyz - 10 hexagons.pdf (18.8 KB) mathspace.xyz - 14 pentagons.pdf (21.9 KB) mathspace.xyz - 24 squares.pdf (25.0 KB) mathspace.xyz - 50 triangles.pdf (42.6 KB)

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Thanks for sharing these. I am sure lots of people will find them very useful.

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I definitely plan on doing this. Youngest DD is taking geometry right now. These will be great to solidify some concepts.

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So fun! Thank you for sharing. I especially like the little pyramid guy.

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Great for in the classroom!

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Thank you for your generous share!

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Very generous share and they look awesome!

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Thank you

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Very neat share! Thank you!

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Thanks for sharing - very useful!

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Um, they’ve been ending up on my head…this is just the latest iteration. I used a thin coated paper/board that I happen to have a lot of, so there’s some wiggle room. Then I decided to figure out hepta- to dodecagon versions.

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