Sorting Shapes by Their Properties, step by step
Shapes sit inside each other, like nested boxes. A shape belongs to every category it satisfies.
- QUADRILATERALAny four straight sides, closed. The biggest box.
- PARALLELOGRAMBoth pairs of opposite sides parallel. Inside quadrilaterals.
- RECTANGLEA parallelogram with four right angles.
- SQUAREA rectangle with four equal sides. The smallest box, inside all the others.
so
- Every square is a rectangle, a parallelogram and a quadrilateral.
- A rectangle is only a square if its sides happen to be equal.
"Is a square a rectangle?" Yes. "Is a rectangle a square?" Only sometimes.
Questions about the Sorting Shapes by Their Properties poster
- What’s on the Sorting Shapes by Their Properties poster?
- 4 numbered steps, with a full worked run-through. Shapes sit inside each other, like nested boxes. A shape belongs to every category it satisfies. QUADRILATERAL — Any four straight sides, closed. The biggest box.; PARALLELOGRAM — Both pairs of opposite sides parallel. Inside quadrilaterals.; RECTANGLE — A parallelogram with four right angles.; SQUARE — A rectangle with four equal sides. The smallest box, inside all the others.. "Is a square a rectangle?" Yes. "Is a rectangle a square?" Only sometimes.
- Who is the Sorting Shapes by Their Properties poster for?
- Sorting Shapes by Their Properties is filed under 5th Grade (ages 10–11), so it matches what that year asks a child to remember. It is equally useful to an older student revisiting math, and to the parent or teacher answering the question at the kitchen table.
- When should you use the Sorting Shapes by Their Properties poster?
- Draw the nested boxes. The hierarchy stops the arguments. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Sorting Shapes by Their Properties belongs on the wall where that math work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Sorting Shapes by Their Properties?
- Adding Unlike Fractions, Area & Perimeter and Comparing Fractions sit alongside Sorting Shapes by Their Properties in the 5th Grade set. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Adding Unlike FractionsArea & PerimeterComparing Fractions
- Is the Sorting Shapes by Their Properties poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Sorting Shapes by Their Properties downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the 5th Grade set. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Sorting Shapes by Their Properties poster print at?
- Sorting Shapes by Their Properties is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Sorting Shapes by Their Properties loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Sorting Shapes by Their Properties on the same wall.
Browse every 5th Grade poster, or start from the full catalogue.