Quadrilaterals

In this task, students will look at examples of rhombuses, rectangles, and squares to make property lists of quadrilaterals. Students will use the index card to check angles, compare side lengths and draw lines if needed. Encourage students to use “at least” when describing how many of something the shape has. For example, a rectangle has at least 4 square corners. Have students compare sides (length), and angles (square, smaller than square, larger than square).
Some students may begin to see diagonals and symmetries of the shapes. Have groups share what they discovered together (remember that defending arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others is a major part of mathematic instruction!) and create a class list for each shape. 

Standards & Objectives

Learning objectives: 

Standards for Mathematical Practices:

  • Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
  • Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
  • Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
  • Model with mathematics.
  • Use appropriate tools strategically.
  • Attend to precision.
  • Look for and make use of structure.
  • Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. 
Essential and guiding questions: 

Essential Questions:

  • Is it possible for a square to be a rectangle?
  • Why do some quadrilaterals look so much alike?
  • Is a rectangle a rhombus?
  • Can some shapes be called other names?

Lesson Variations

Blooms taxonomy level: 
Analyzing

Helpful Hints

Materials:

  • Student Recording Sheet
  • Index Cards (used to compare angles and sides)

References

Contributors: