Shapes within Shapes

What You Need

A pen or pencil and paper.

What To Do

With a writing utensil, have your child draw a shape on a sheet of paper. Then, have them draw several lines to divide the shape into parts. For example, if they drew a rectangle, they could draw lines from corner to corner. Then, talk with your child about what shapes they see within the shape they drew. In this case, there would be 4 triangles within the rectangle.

Math is a Process

This is a challenging concept! If your child doesn’t understand right away, try having them divide a shape into just 2 shapes (e.g. drawing a line in a triangle from the top angle to the base to divide it into 2 triangles, or dividing a rectangle into 2 squares) and discussing. This will help them develop a base of knowledge to build on later, and it gives you the chance to talk more about why combining two shapes makes another shape.