Sorting Quadrilaterals by Attribute

This is a lesson I do with students to help them understand how we can sort quadrilaterals by their attributes/features/characteristics.

Learning the reasoning behind the sorting rules helps them to grapple with statements such as "All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares".

Then, as you advance through the slides, the quadrilaterals are progressively defined by more and more attributes. The colour-coding of the characteristics helps students to fill in information that is missing from categories 3 through 6. At the end of learning all of the sorting rules, students are challenged to name each category of quadrilateral.

This can be done as a whole class, or emailed to students to work on independently. This year, students wanted to use this during their student-led parent/teacher conference/interview, because they wanted to put their parents through the same struggle/challenge of learning all of these sorting rules! (Parents were very impressed with their child's understanding of quadrilaterals during these presentations, and it always feels wonderful to know that another group of kids has developed a keen understanding of why we sort shapes the way we do.)

The answers are on the 3rd to last slide. If you, or your students, come up with more attributes that I didn't include, let me know! It's always fun to hear the additional sorting rules students come up with independently.