Prisms and Pyramids

After spending a couple of days on the differences between prisms and pyramids, I was not satisfied with my students ability to distinguish between the 2 solids smoothly and with ease.  I decided to backtrack and try another approach.  I pulled out some stencils with basic geometric shapes, some pink paper that had been cut years ago, and construction paper.  
I placed students in groups and let them experiment with the stencils.  The groups came up with as many prisms and pyramids as possible and glued them to the appropriate column on their "ancient" pink paper.  They also kept the prisms and pyramids  that didn't work and wrote about these solids and explained why they didn't work.  I am so glad I went back and tried again.  My students now have a "solid" knowledge of the shapes and can classify the prism and pyramid now!