About this worksheet
Counting a shape's parts is a slower, more useful skill than naming its outline, because it works on shapes a child has never seen. Each page here draws one shape and asks for one count: how many straight sides, or how many corners. On the ready and practice sheets every corner carries a dot, so the child can touch the dots and count them. The stretch sheet takes the dots away and adds shapes with five and six sides, so the only method left is to put a finger on the outline and travel around once. That is the method worth teaching. Choose a starting corner, say one, move along the side to the next corner, say two, and keep going until you arrive back where you began. Children who count the starting corner twice usually have not marked where they started, and a fingertip left in place fixes it. Round shapes are worth meeting here too: a circle has one curved edge, no straight sides, and no corners at all.
What your child will learn
- Count the straight sides of a shape
- Count corners without counting the first one twice
- Tell a straight edge from a curved one
- Count a shape's parts when nothing is marked for you
Worked example
Put a fingertip on one corner of a trapezoid and travel around: four corners, and four straight sides between them.
Common mistake
Arriving back at the starting corner and counting it a second time, which turns four into five.
Helpful hint
Mark where you started with a fingertip and travel around once.
Worksheet 1