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Need a pentagonal pyramid that's six inches tall? Or a number line that goes from ‑18 to 32 by 5's? Or a set of pattern blocks where all shapes have one-inch sides? You can create all those things and more with the Dynamic Paper tool. Place the images you want, then export it as a PDF activity sheet for your students or as a JPEG image for use in other applications or on the web. Instructions   This applet allows you to create the following: Nets – two-dimensional outlines of three-dimensional shapes, including regular polyhedra, prisms, pyramids, cylinders and cones Graph Paper – coordinate graphs, polar coordinates, logarithmic graph paper Number Lines – including positive and negative coordinates Number Grids – hundreds boards and the like Tessellations – tiling patterns involving triangles, quadrilaterals, and hexagons Shapes – pattern blocks, attribute blocks, and color tiles Spinners – up to 16 sectors, with adjustable sizes

The pyramid creates the impression that there is a scarcity of creativity — only those who can traverse the bottom levels and reach the summit can be creative. And while this may be how it plays out in many schools, it’s not due to any shortage of creative potential on the part of our students.

Here’s what I propose: we flip Bloom’s taxonomy. Rather than starting with knowledge, we start with creating, and eventually discern the knowledge that we need from it.

I’ve come to realize that it’s very important for my students to encounter a concept before fully understanding what’s going on. It makes their brain try to fill in the gaps, and the more churn a brain experiences, the more likely it’s going to retain information