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Identify Defining and Non-Defining Attributes of Shapes

Students will distinguish between attributes that define a shape (e.g., number of sides, number of angles) and attributes that do not define the shape (e.g., color, size, orientation). Students learn that a triangle is still a triangle regardless of its size or color.

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Identify Defining and Non-Defining Attributes of Shapes

Grade 1 · Geometry: Shapes and Their Attributes · question 1 of 3

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12 rungs. A star at the top.

123

Bo needs a circle from the cookies. Which number?

Which shape? Type its number.

How it is taught

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A shape's kind comes from sides and corners.

Color and size do not change the kind.

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Read it: Count sides after a turn

A triangle sits on the page. Turn it, and it looks new. Look at the 3 sides.

  1. Count the sides of the turned shape: 1, 2, 3.
  2. Count the corners the same way: 1, 2, 3.
  3. Name it a triangle: 3 sides, 3 corners.

Turning a triangle does not add or take away a side, so the count stays 3.

The pointy look of a corner is still a corner after a turn; you still have 3 of them.

If you only go by how it sits on the page, a turned triangle can look like a different shape — counting sides undoes that.

Count the sides and the corners: a turn does not change the name.

Thinking a triangle pointing a new way is a new shape, because it no longer sits on a flat side.

Count the 3 sides and 3 corners. The name stays triangle.

A flat shape is round. It has no sides and no corners. What is it called? — circle. Round, with no sides and no corners: that is a circle.

Three different triangles

Look at this triangle. What makes it a triangle? Let's find out!

Grade 1 · What makes a shape a triangle?

Look at this triangle. Let's count its sides: one, two, three!

Now let's count the corners — also called angles. One, two, three!

Three sides and three corners. That's a triangle.

Here's a bigger triangle in a different color. It still has three sides and three corners!

And here's one that's pointing down. It's still a triangle!

Three sides and three corners are the DEFINING parts of a triangle. They make it a triangle.

Color, size, and which way it points are NOT what makes it a triangle. Those things can change.

Any shape with three sides and three corners is a triangle. You got it!

Now you try. Pick the name of this shape from the list. Which name fits this shape?

What you see

While they climb, your page writes one true line to ask about tonight, and a short note each Sunday.

MayaGrade 3 · Mathematics
Did you know?

A chessboard has 64 squares — share them out between the 8 rows and each row holds exactly 8.

Today’s goal
1 star — one skill mastered, every rung of its ladder climbed
Climbing now
Divide within 100

An example student.

MayaGrade 3 · Mathematics

Maya earned 2 stars this week — Interpret multiplication as equal groups, which took 6 answers over 3 days before its star landed 3 days ago and Multiply by 6, 7, 8 and 9. Next up: Divide within 100.

An example week.

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Identify Defining and Non-Defining Attributes of Shapes — Grade 1 Mathematics