Shape Recognizer—All Rectangles

Sub Trajectory: Classifying

Recognizes more rectangle sizes, shapes, and orientations of rectangles.

Activities

You may see this:

Linked Image to Sign In/Sign Up page

Other Examples:

  • A child correctly names shapes with four sides and four right angles as "rectangles."
  • When asked to find rectangles, a child correctly ignores a shape without four right angles, even though the shape has two long sides and two short sides.

Help your student become a(n) Shape Recognizer—All Rectangles

Activities include exploring and discussing many shapes of rectangles, all at various orientations, including both typical ones but also "long and skinny ones" and even…squares as "special rectangles" that happen to have all our sides the same length. Discuss that the defining attribute of rectangles are right angles (rect-angles!).

Practice-based Research: All squares are rectangles because rectangles can be defined as shapes with pairs of parallel sides that are equal in length with all right angles (not “two long sides and two short sides”). However, all rectangles are not squares—only those with all four sides of equal length are squares. Avoid telling children "that's a square, not a rectangle," instead saying, "Good, that's a special rectangle with all sides equal length!  What do we call this special rectangle?" (A square.)

Rectangles are found nearly everywhere—windows, doors, photo frames, boards, light fixtures, floors, walls, and ceilings. Show and discuss examples of these with children. 

Special Thanks To

Institute of Education Sciences
The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through grant numbers R305K050157, R305A120813, R305A110188, and R305A150243. to the University of Denver. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.