Today Aiden and I discussed triangles, their side lengths, and their orientation. We began by considering a triangle with side lengths 6inches, 8inches, and 10inches. I asked Aiden to consider if there was any way to create these triangles with a different shape. Aiden understood that if two triangles with the same side lengths were created, that only it's orientation could change, but not the actual size or shape. In other words, we would be able to rotate or reflect the image so that it fit directly on top of one another. We got out straws and cut them to the given measures. We practiced rearranging the lengths to create newly shaped triangles but realized we could not. Next, the problem asked us if we could create a triangle with side lengths 4 cm, 3 cm, and 8 cm. With the straws, we could see that the tops of the 4cm and 3cm straws would not meet. In other words, if one side was 8cm, either the 4cm side or the 3cm side would have to be longer in order to touch. Aiden on his own said, "The two sides of the triangle have to be larger than the 3rd side". I said "OMG you just proved a theorem!" The next slide said exactly that. The sum of two sides of a triangle must be greater than the third side!