Identify Shared Attributes of Shapes

Students will examine groups of shapes and identify the attributes they share (e.g., number of sides, right angles, parallel sides, equal side lengths). They will use attribute language to describe and compare shapes accurately.

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Grade 3 · Shape Attributes and Categories · question 1 of 3

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12 rungs. A star at the top.

Pick a trapezoid from the magnets.

Your answer:

How it is taught

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Shapes share attributes like sides and angles.

Count each side once as you go around.

Read it: Rectangles by their corners

5 shapes sit on the table. Which of them are rectangles? Read the marks, not the look.

A rectangle has 4 square corners.
Find the shapes with a square mark in every corner.
The rectangle and the square: 2 rectangles.

The marks on a shape tell what is true about its sides and corners.

A square has 4 square corners, so it is a rectangle too.

A parallelogram has 2 pairs of parallel sides, so it is a trapezoid too.

Name a shape by its marks. 1 shape can have 2 names.

Leaving out the square, because it is not long like a rectangle.

Check its corners: 4 square corners. The square is a rectangle too.

A square, a rhombus, a trapezoid and a triangle. How many are quadrilaterals? — 3. The square, the rhombus and the trapezoid have 4 sides. The triangle has 3.

Square vs. Rectangle

Today we'll compare two shapes and find the things they share. Attributes are the math words we use to describe shapes.

Here's a square. All four of its sides are the same length.

Grade 3 · What do these two shapes have in common?

And here's a rectangle. Its long sides are equal, and its short sides are equal.

Let's count the sides of the square: one, two, three, four.

Now the rectangle: one, two, three, four. Both have four sides.

First shared attribute: both shapes have exactly four sides. We call shapes with four sides quadrilaterals.

Look at the corners. Each corner is a right angle, like the corner of a book. Both shapes have four right angles.

The top and bottom sides never cross — they're parallel. The left and right sides are parallel too. Both shapes have two pairs of parallel sides.

Four sides, four right angles, two pairs of parallel sides. Both shapes share these attributes — that's why both are rectangles!

Now you try. Count the corners on this shape. How many corners are there?

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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Standard

CCSS.3.G.A.1

Understand that shapes in different categories may share attributes, and that the shared attributes can define a larger category (e.g., rhombuses, rectangles, and squares are all quadrilaterals)

Grade 3

Quoted from the Common Core State Standards.

Where this sits

Comes after

Identify Triangles, Quadrilaterals, Pentagons, and Hexagons

Leads to

What a star here means

A star here is the top of a twelve-rung ladder, in four blocks of equal length — three of facts and one of the skill used in a real question — where a right answer climbs one rung and a wrong one drops back to the start of the block, never below it. The star is kept for good. How we grade

All of Grade 3

This is one rung of 104 in Grade 3 mathematics, in the order they build on each other.

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