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Defining Attributes of Rectangles and Parallelograms


Alignments to Content Standards: 4.G.A.2

Task

  1. Look at each figure. Read each of the descriptions. Place an X in the box if it appears to describe the figure pictured.

    A. Task_2_d2d644afa4c90b38f7021a8d59437158 B. Task_3_60f202e7f59d1e1cd9063c3effa65169 C. Task_4_3c968fcc1ef824ab93c1be06ccfd833e D. Task_5_ca96dc4692ee4a8f19d3e506db63ac0c
    4 vertices
    Four sides
    Opposite sides parallel
    Perpendicular sides
    Opposite sides have equal length
    All sides have equal length
    Contains right angle(s)
    Contains acute angle(s)
    Contains obtuse angle(s)

  2. What is true of all the figures?

  3. All of the figures above are rectangles. Ring the rectangles below. Using what you know that is true of all rectangles to help you.

    Task_1_2434ac6335dc694b93795a973da1ee93

    Choose one figure you did not ring. Explain why it is not a rectangle.

    Look at each figure. Read each of the attributes. Place an X in the box if it appears to be an attribute of the figure pictured.

    Table_2_44ae8039482cdf061381a99563d47d44

    What is true of all the figures?

    All of the figures above are parallelograms. Ring all the parallelograms below. Using what you know that is true of all parallelograms to help you.

    Task_1_2434ac6335dc694b93795a973da1ee93

    Choose one figure you did not ring. Explain why it is not a parallelogram.

IM Commentary

At early stages of understanding of geometric shapes, students describe shapes, but do not yet characterize shapes by their properties. One example of a misconception students have at this stage is that a rectangle has two short sides and two long sides.

The purpose of this task is for students to identify the defining attributes of rectangles and parallelograms. This task should be completed after students have many experiences sorting shapes by attributes. Understanding which characteristics are defining attributes will allow students to use work toward 5th grade 5.G.3 (Understand that attributes belonging to a category of two-dimensional figures also belong to all subcategories of that category) and 5.G.4 (Classify two-dimensional figures in hierarchy based on properties.)

This task could be altered to identify defining attributes of triangles and other quadrilaterals.

Solution

Table_3_48591826482298087571b305d12e6b38

What is true of all the figures?

All of the figures have 4 sides and 4 vertices with opposite sides parallel and congruent. They have four right angles, so they also have perpendicular line segments.

All of the figures above are rectangles. Put a ring around all the rectangles below. Using what you know that is true of all rectangles to help you.

Sol_1_d9ececc39b5d5ca9c6b00ac55ae1f5cf

Choose one figure you did not circle. Explain why it is not a rectangle.

Example: This figure Sol_3_0d4f8e6180fba2e11ce1317da0467665 has 4 sides and 4 vertices. Only one set of opposite sides are parallel and it does not have right angles, so it cannot be a rectangle.

Table_4_354bcb7539b30a39d6ea5d17fe02e394

What is true of all the figures?

All the figures have 4 sides and 4 vertices with opposite sides parallel and congruent.

All of the figures above are parallelograms. Put a ring around all the parallelograms below. Using what you know that is true of all parallelograms to help you.

Sol_2_e13f2b10fe072cd37afbba84f4e93ac8

Choose one figure you did not ring. Explain why it is not a parallelogram.

Example: The regular hexagon has opposite sides parallel and congruent, but it is not 4-sided.