Year 6 Draw, compose and decompose shapes worksheet

“Name shapes by their properties” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 6 maths unit “Draw, compose and decompose shapes”, for children aged 10 to 11, and takes about 20 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 13 to 14 of the year, 10 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Name shapes by their properties

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 6 · Maths · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can name shapes from their properties and say whether they are regular or irregular.

A Look back3 min

1.
Angles in a triangle add to 180°. Two of them are 50° and 60°. The third angle is °
2.
Angles on a straight line add to 180°. One is 115°. The other is °
3.
A square has sides of 5 cm. Its perimeter is cm.

B Watch me, then you4 min

Kit says: “This shape has 4 straight sides, all the same length. Its angles are not right angles.” What shape is it?

Watch me

4 straight sides, so it is a quadrilateral.

All 4 sides are equal, so it is a rhombus or a square.

No right angles, so it is not a square. It is a rhombus.

Now you

1.
This shape has 4 straight sides. Its opposite sides are equal and parallel, but no angle is a right angle. Circle the name that fits.
parallelogramtrapeziumkitehexagon

C Your turn5 min

Name each shape. Circle the word that fits.

1.
Circle the name of this shape.
kitetrapeziumrectanglerhombus
2.
Circle the name of this shape.
kitetrapeziumrectanglerhombus
3.
Circle the name of this shape.
kitetrapeziumrectanglerhombus
4.
Circle the name of this shape.
kitetrapeziumrectanglerhombus

Say it out loud: Which clue told you the name fastest: the sides, the angles, or the parallel lines?

D Spot the mistake3 min

Mia says: “Every rectangle has four equal angles, so every rectangle is regular.”

1.
Is a rectangle that is not a square regular or irregular? Circle the word that fits.
regularirregular

E Think deeper4 min

1.
Sort the shape names. Here, rectangle and rhombus mean ones that are not squares. Write each one in the right column.
squareequilateral triangleregular hexagonrectanglerhombusscalene triangle
Regular Irregular

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Name shapes by their properties · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. 70

2. 65

3. 20

B

1. parallelogram If your child circles trapezium, count the pairs of parallel sides. This shape has two pairs, and a trapezium has only one.

C

1. rectangle

2. rhombus If your child circles rectangle, check the sides. A rhombus has 4 equal sides, and a rectangle does not need equal sides.

3. trapezium If your child circles kite, look for parallel sides. A trapezium has exactly one pair, and a kite has none.

4. kite

D

1. irregular If your child circles regular, check the side lengths. The angles are equal, but the sides differ in length. A regular shape needs both equal.

E

1. Regular: square, equilateral triangle, regular hexagon · Irregular: rectangle, rhombus, scalene triangle If your child puts the rhombus under regular, ask whether all its angles are equal. A rhombus can be pushed over, so its angles change while its sides stay equal.

Words to use

Say“Which property gives the name? Check the sides first, then the angles.”

Instead of“Just tell them the name of the shape.”

After the sheet

Cut a square and a rectangle from paper. Fold each one to check which sides and angles match.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

9 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Acute or obtuse?(with a plan)
Shapes Hiding in Nets(with a plan)
Will this net fold?(with a plan)
Same pieces, same area(with a plan)
Slanted shapes become rectangles(with a plan)
Triangles Making Parallelograms(with a plan)
Same area, different edges(with a plan)
Area, perimeter and missing sides(with a plan)
Finding missing lengths(with a plan)

Every Year 6 maths worksheet

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