3D shape templatesCylinder
Cylinder template
A cylinder net with one rectangle that rolls into a tube and two circles with small teeth that fold into the ends. It suits math lessons, pencil holders and gift tubes.
- Set it up your way
- Print or PDF, Letter or A4
- Free, no sign-up
On this page
A cylinder has two flat circular ends and one curved side. If you unroll the side, it is a rectangle, and that fact is the key to this net: the rectangle's width is the circumference of the circle.
What prints
The page is titled "Cylinder Template". At the top is one long rectangle. Its width equals pi times the diameter of the end circles, and its height is a little under twice the diameter at medium size. A grey glue tab runs along its right edge.
Below the rectangle sit two circles side by side. Each has a ring of small grey teeth around it, and the teeth are what you fold and glue to the inside of the tube. The circle outline itself is a soft grey fold line, and the teeth have solid cut lines. The key at the bottom shows cut, fold and glue tab.
The settings
- Shape: Cylinder.
- Size: Small, Medium and Large, drawn at three-quarter, full and one-and-a-fifth scale. The net is shrunk if the larger size would overflow the page.
There are no other options for this shape.
Putting it together
Cut the rectangle with its tab and cut out both toothed circles. Do not cut off the teeth, but do snip between them if they resist. Crease the circle lines and the tab fold. Roll the rectangle into a tube and glue the tab under the opposite edge. Then fold the teeth of one circle up, spread glue on them and press the circle into one end like a lid. Repeat at the other end, or leave it open for a pencil holder.
A 65 to 110 lb card is stiff enough to hold its round shape. Print at actual size. Children can use blunt-tip scissors, with an adult helping around the teeth.
Worked example: a pencil cup and a circumference check
Priya, a sixth grader, makes a pencil cup from the Large size. She glues only one end circle, which gives her a cup with a base and open top. Before assembly, she measures the width of the rectangle with a ruler and the diameter of a circle, then divides the first by the second. She gets just over three, which is pi.
She then covers the cup with stickers and adds a second one for her brother, folded from the Small size. Teachers who want to turn the lesson into calculation can pair the model with the surface area and volume worksheets, where the lateral area of a cylinder is circumference times height. A flat circle on its own is also on the circle template page.
Next step
The cone template uses the same toothed circle for the base.