CCSS.Math.Content.K.G.B.4
The standard
Analyze and compare two- and three-dimensional shapes, in different sizes and orientations, using informal language to describe their similarities, differences, parts (e.g., number of sides and vertices/"corners") and other attributes (e.g., having sides of equal length).
Common Core State Standards for Mathematics · Geometry
What this standard means
Students need to look closely at flat and solid shapes and talk about what is the same and different. They should notice sides, corners, curves, faces, points, length, size, and position. They also need to understand that a shape is still that shape when it is bigger, smaller, turned, flipped, or standing up differently.
Mastery sounds like a kindergartener saying, “These are both triangles because they have 3 sides and 3 corners,” or “This cube and this cylinder are different because the cylinder rolls and has curved sides.” Students often get stuck naming shapes by how they are turned, or by size instead of attributes.
Ways to teach it
- Hands-on: Give pairs pattern blocks and solid shape toys, then have them sort two ways and explain each sort to a partner.
- Prompt: Show two shapes and ask, “What is the same, what is different, and how do you know?”
- Quick assessment: Hold up a turned triangle, a small square, and a cylinder, then ask students to name one attribute of each.
- Real-world connection: On a classroom shape hunt, students find one flat shape and one solid shape, then describe sides, corners, or curved parts.
Plan a lesson for CCSS.Math.Content.K.G.B.4
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Related standards
- CCSS.Math.Content.K.G.A.3
Identify shapes as two-dimensional (lying in a plane, "flat") or three-dimensional ("solid").
- CCSS.Math.Content.HSG-GMD.B.4
Identify the shapes of two-dimensional cross-sections of three-dimensional objects, and identify three-dimensional objects generated by rotations of two-dimensi...
- CCSS.Math.Content.K.G.B
Analyze, compare, create, and compose shapes.
- CCSS.Math.Content.HSG-MG.A.1
Use geometric shapes, their measures, and their properties to describe objects (e.g., modeling a tree trunk or a human torso as a cylinder).