Section 3 - Designer Shapes

Print and cut-out these shapes:

Print and cut-out these quadrilaterals:

Sorting shapes

a. Sorting out your shapes

b. Sorting your quadrilaterals (4 sides and 4 corners)
Your sorting should look something like this:


c. Sorting out your triangles (3 sides and 3 corners):
Sort out the triangles from the other shapes. What is different about them from the other shapes?

Triangles are very rigid and strong. Have a look at the buildings around you and see how many triangles you can see in the construction.

d. Sorting your parallelograms
To help you: What do we mean by parallel sides? Answer: Parallel sides or parallel lines are sides or lines which never meet each other.


e. Sorting trapeziums

Questions and answers

Q: What is a quadrilateral?
A: A polygon with 4 sides.
 
Q: What is a parallelogram?
A: A quadrilateral in which both pairs of opposite sides are equal.
 
Q: How is a rectangle different?
A: A rectangle is a parallelogram with right-angles. Look at the diagram above.
Q: So, what is a square?
A: A square is a rectangle with all its sides equal. This also fits into the definition of a rectangle. Surprisingly, a square is a rectangle.
 
Q: What is a rhombus? Is it a parallelogram? Has it got right-angles?
A: A Rhombus is a parallelogram with two adjacent sides equal in length. All 4 sides are equal in length.
 
Q: What is a trapezium?
A: A quadrilateral with two, and only two, opposite sides parallel.

f. Further sorting of quadrilaterals
You need: A variety of shapes.
Draw the diagram below on a large piece of paper. Make your diagram big enough for your shapes to fit in it:

g. Properties of shapes
Copy the following table and complete it by ticking the special properties after examining each of the shapes:

Properties of shapes
  Two pairs of adjacent sides equal Opposite sides equal Opposite angles equal Two pairs of opposite sides equal All angles equal All sides equal
Square            
Rectangle            
Parallelogram            
Rhombus            
Kite            
Trapezium            

h. Squares
A square is a quadrilateral, parallelogram, rectangle and a rhombus

You will see that squares are used in later units for Polyominoes (tessellating squares) and Tangrams (puzzles using squares) and Geoboards (shapes based on a square).

 
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