A few days ago I had the opportunity to work with a grade 2 teacher as her class was learning about Geometry. The students started the class with a rich activity comparing and sorting a variety of standard and non-standard shapes, followed by a great discussion about several properties they had noticed.
Shortly after, students started working on following the page as independent work. Take a look:
Take a minute to try to figure out what you think the answers might be. Scroll up and pick one of the less obvious shapes and count how many you see.
This isn’t one of those Facebook “can you find all the hidden shapes” tasks, it’s meant to be a straightforward activity for grade 2 students. However, I’m not sure what the actual answers are here. So, I need some help… I’d love if you could:
- Pick one shape (or more if you’re adventurous)
- Think about what you believe the teacher’s edition would say
- Count how many you see
- Share the 3 points above as a comment here or on Twitter
I’m hoping in my next post that we can discuss more than just this worksheet and make some generalizations for any grade and any topic.
Thinking Mathematically 
I picked triangle.
I see 14 but I’d predict the teachers’ guide would say 12 because the triangle beside the answer blank shows only the small equilateral triangle.
PS I’d see even more triangles if I decomposed shapes and didn’t just go by where the black lines marked.
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I see 12 trapezoids and 10 hexagons. (I hope I didn’t miss any!). I would be disappointed in a teacher’s edition that says there are 8 trapezoids and 6 hexagons. I would celebrate any student who could justify more than 8 and 6, and concerned about any teacher who “corrects” them.
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I think there might be 14 trapezoids. Did you include the “sideways” ones in your count?
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I saw 12 trapezoids as well. Would you be able to tell us where the “sideways ones” are that you see? Im curious!
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I might with you Sarah. I see 14 triangles but wonder if the teacher guide would miss the two larger ones.
I also wonder if the squares count as rectangles…?
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I see 17 trapezoids as several can be composed in the top row.
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I picked hexagon and counted 10. Teachers guide likely just has numbers. If lucky maybe some look-fors such as strategies used, relationships to draw attention to, and recording methods.
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I see 12 hexagons.10 of them resemble yellow hexagon pattern blocks and 2 on the bottom row can be composed of 2 trapezoids each.
Wondered what resource this diagram came from?
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Great Activity. I am teaching inTanzania and definitely will use it my high school classroom.
I have found 18 trapezoids.
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Thanks Jerome for sharing. Seems like a lot of people in Tanzania have been reading my posts. I’m so interested in the conversation about what a trapezoid is, and less interested in knowing what the actual answer is. Not sure the teacher’s guide does us any favours here though.
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I count 47 trapezoids
60 hexagons
14 triangles, 10 rectangles, 6 squares, 8 circles
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Erm, I meant 70 hexagons in my picture there. Typo.
It’s also possible I missed circling some others.
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