You can put shapes together to make a new shape. You can use flat shapes to make new flat shapes and new solid shapes.
To better understand how to create new shapes from existing ones…
LET’S BREAK IT DOWN!
Review flat shapes.
Circles, triangles, rectangles, squares, and hexagons are all flat shapes. A circle is a round shape with no sides or corners. A triangle has 3 sides. A rectangle has 4 sides and 4 square corners. A square is a special type of rectangle with all sides the same length. A hexagon has 6 sides.
Make new shapes out of pizza triangles.
You have special pieces of pizza shaped like triangles. You can put shapes together to make a new shape. You can put 2 of these triangles together to make a square. You can put 4 of these triangles together to make a rectangle.
Make new shapes out of quilt patches.
You have quilt patches that are squares and triangles. What shapes can you make? You could put 1 square and 2 triangles together to make a new shape, called a trapezoid. Then, you could put two trapezoids together to make another new shape, a hexagon.
Make a solid shape out of 6 squares.
A flat shape is made up of 6 squares. If you fold it up, what shape do you have? You have a cube. It is a cube because it is not flat and it has 6 square faces.
Make a new shape out of 2 cubes.
You have 2 cubes. What new shape can you make if you combine the cubes? The new shape has 6 rectangular faces, so it is a rectangular prism.