Search Flat Shape Educational Resources

Let’s give our children’s spatial abilities a boost with these delightful games that will stretch their understanding of rectangles, parallelograms, and other flat shapes. To give your children the flat shapes help they need and keep learning as fun as possible, try puzzles. Once a child understands the concept of 2D objects, it won’t be long until they are studying 3D shapes.

The first encounter with geometry that students have will be with flat shapes, also known as plane shapes because they exist on a two dimensional plane.

Plane shapes have different attributes. While many of the attributes will vary from shape to shape, all plane shapes share two: They are all two dimensional and are all closed. Other attributes include the number of sides, the number of angles, and the number of vertices.

• An angle is a shape formed by two lines diverging from a single point.
• A vertex is the point from which two lines making an angle diverge.
• A side is one line that makes up a flat or plane shape.

Many flat shapes have other attributes as well. Going over these with your students may help them identify these shapes. Some examples are:

• Circles
  • No sides
  • No angles
  • No vertices
  • Every point is the same fixed distance from the center of the circle
• Squares
  • 4 straight sides
  • All sides are the same length
  • 4 vertices
  • 4 right angles (90 degree angles)
  • Both sets of opposing sides are parallel lines
• Rectangles
  • 4 straight sides
  • 4 right angles
  • 4 vertices
  • Both sets of opposing sides are parallel lines
  • Both sets of opposing sides are of equal length

Reviewing the above attributes, students may realize that some shapes meet multiple sets of criteria. A square, for example, is a special kind of rectangle and rhombus. Using the resources provided above by Education.com may help students begin to understand these 2 dimensional shapes and give them a head start in geometry.