The document describes a classroom activity where students were tasked with creating net patterns to dress a cube-shaped character named Mr. Cube. Students worked in groups to find all possible net patterns using six squares. They were challenged to consider symmetrical patterns, "zippers" to connect the squares, and coloring the nets attractively. The teacher observed that students engaged well with the constructive metaphorical task, with some groups working efficiently through teamwork and sharing roles.

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Dressing Mr. Cube

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Challenge
Within the metaphoric situation
‘The Dressmaker’, pupils are
asked to make a pattern for
clothes for the Cube. To do this
the following are available: a
model of a cube, six squares of
the same size as the faces of
the cube, stickers, a big sheet
of paper and pencils

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Challenge
• The task was presented as a
story: Mr. Cube has just arrived on
Earth coming from the Cube
Planet and he has no clothes.
• We have to find as many clothes
patterns for him as possible.
• Each pattern will be made of six
squares.
• We have to make sure he can put
on the new clothes.

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Challenge
• As a supplementary task: find the
“zippers” of the clothes.
• The clothes should be coloured in
an attractive way.
• Find the symmetrical patterns.
• Are they all in pairs?
• Have you found all the nets? How
many are there?

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Comments
• The constructivist approach is
obvious.
• The metaphoric language is clear,
the clothes are the nets of a cube.
Its role is to appeal to real life
situations.
• The cube is not a building block
anymore, but an “individual”.
• The real challenge is not to find a
net, but all the possible ones.

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Creating the net

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Trying a net

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Embellishments

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Some help

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Team work

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Let me show you!

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Zippers

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A bit of chaos

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A mistake

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Results

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Another result

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Are these all?

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Colours

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Comments: strong points
• Some of the pupils had the
idea of using first pins instead
of stickers to connect the
squares.
• They grasped the “zippers”
idea very quickly.

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Comments: strong points
• Some groups shared roles and
therefore worked very quickly.
They even expressed the cause of
their efficiency: teamwork.
• They had the idea of having five
fixed squares and a mobile one, in
order to find more nets.
• They found the symmetrical nets
(“brother and sister”).

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Comments: weak points
• A funny one: after finding two
symmetrical nets, they turned one
of them upside down and said: we
have triplets!

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Conclusions
• It was a task the pupils particularly
enjoyed, despite the time and
effort they had to put into it.
• It took them into 3-dimensional
space and had a “story” attached
to it, these are two of the reasons
it was so popular.

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Follow-up
• Create at least one clothes pattern
for Mr. Cube’s family: his parents,
Mr. Cuboid and Mrs. Prism, his
wife, Mrs. Sphere and their son,
the young Cone.
• Is this always possible? Why?
Which member of the family can
only get one pattern and which
one none?