Shapes (Year 6)

In KS2 Year Six, children should be quite comfortable when dealing with shapes in Maths. By now they should know the names of some irregular 2D shapes like the parallelogram, the kite or the rhombus, and be familiar with the regular polygons from the circle up to the dodecagon, and also several of the 3D shapes. They will also be familiar with some of the words used to describe shapes, such as circumference, concentric, arc or parallel.

Shapes with equal angles at teach of their corners, like squares or pentagons, are called regular shapes. But what do we call a shape with different angles, like a kite, a rhombus or a parallelogram? We call it an irregular shape. Irregular shapes have some odd names, like trapezium or even diamond!Cubes and pyramids are 3D shapes. Making three-dimensional shapes with card can be great fun and will give you an idea of how many faces a certain shape has.

Do you know the difference between a rhombus and a parallelogram? Test your knowledge of trapeziums, dodecahedrons and some other shapes in this quiz.