Yes. You read that right. A square IS a rectangle.
Sidenote: As I was typing this title my younger brother is sitting next to me and he reads this and replies “yeah, so a rectangle is a square” PERFECT TEACHING MOMENT!
So naturally, I had to take advantage of this and test out my own skills with a quick lesson. My brother is 9 so this is great practice. Here is essentially how this conversation went; and I’m happy to say that he now has a pretty good understanding of this concept as well!
My response to his statement that a rectangle is a square is no. Initially he was confused, much like I was when I first learned this concept. What helped me was drawing out a visual. One square and a rectangle next to each other. Now, list some of the characteristics of each one. There are more, and he could be more specific but; this is what he came up with.
Square:
- 4 sides
- equal sides
- 4 right angles
Rectangle:
- 4 sides
- 4 right angles
With this, I had him check off the things that matched from the square to the rectangle list. Notice anything? Everything that’s on the rectangle list is also on the square list. That means yes, a square is a rectangle. It has 4 sides and 4 right angles. BUT we aren’t finished yet. Look at the rectangle list. There’s one thing left over. Does a rectangle have to have 4 EQUAL sides? No! So it can’t be a square!
It was just a quick spontaneous lesson, but I also found some cool interactive websites with activities for students learning basic geometry.
My experience in Math 257 