Cheese Plate Craft (With Bonus Geometry Lesson!)

The top cheese-producing states in the US are Wisconsin, California, and Idaho, in that order. Together, the three states produce more than half of the nation's cheese. Wisconsin, known as America's Dairyland, makes more than 600 varieties of cheese and leads the country in cheddar production. Popular cheeses including Colby and Muenster were invented in Wisconsin. California produces over 250 variety of cheese, including Monterey Jack, a California original. Throughout the 2000's, the cheese industry in Idaho has grown rapidly, although I couldn't find information about how many varieties are currently produced there. 

Most cheese is made in wheels or in blocks. In geometry terms, a wheel is just a very squat cylinder. A block is a rectangular prism. When you cut a block into parts with equal sides, you get a square prism (aka, a cube). When you cut a block on the diagonal, you end up with a triangular prism.  Learn how to draw these shapes and then turn them into a fun cheese board craft. 

Cheese Plate Craft + How to Draw Solid Figures

Materials: 

• cardstock
• colored pencils
• scissors
• craft glue

Steps: 

Use a piece of scratch paper to learn the basic steps to drawing rectangular prisms, triangular prisms, and cylinders. Start by drawing a triangle, oval, and rectangle with a colored pencil. 

Draw an identical (congruent) triangle slightly up and to the right of the first. (If you're using this as a proper geometry lesson, measure and use a straight edge, unlike my quick examples below.) Do the same with the rectangle. Draw a congruent oval directly above the first. How far apart you space the two congruent shapes determines the size of your finished solid figure. Experiment!

Finally, draw straight lines between the points (vertices) of the triangles and of the rectangles. Ovals don't have vertices, so draw straight lines between the outermost parts.

When you are confident drawing solid figures, try them on cardstock! Draw the lines very lightly with brown or grey. Cut out the finished shapes. 

Now get creative! Add holes to a triangular prism to make swiss cheese. Draw a cut wedge (segment, in geometry terms) from the cylinder and then color it to make brie. Put cubes of cheddar into a bowl. Arrange the whole thing on a board or plate cut from construction paper. When you are happy with your design, glue it in place. 

There are so many fun ways to extend this lesson. If I were doing this in the classroom, we would definitely follow it up with a cheese tasting. We'd jump into the history and science of cheese and maybe even make ricotta from scratch. So many possibilities!