Kindergarten to Grade 3 Geometry and Spatial Sense

• cover outline puzzles in different ways (e.g., complete the same outlinepuzzle using the greatest number of pattern blocks and the smallest numberof pattern blocks);• recognize congruent two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional figures.Students verify the congruence of two-dimensional shapes by matching sidesand angles or by superimposing shapes. Students show that three-dimensionalfigures are congruent by matching parts of the figures;• compose and decompose three-dimensional figures, and identify the twodimensionalfaces of the figures;• describe the two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional figures in astructure;• describe the two-dimensional faces of three-dimensional figures.Instructional StrategiesStudents in Grade 3 benefit from the following instructional strategies:• discussing and demonstrating relationships among quadrilaterals, rectangles,and squares (e.g., a rectangle is a quadrilateral because a rectangle has foursides; a square is a rectangle because a square has four sides and four squarevertices/corners);• providing opportunities to create designs and patterns using two-dimensionalshapes (e.g., pattern blocks), including patterns in which units (shapes composedof other shapes) are repeated;• providing experiences in decomposing two-dimensional shapes to make othershapes (e.g., decomposing a triangle into two triangles or into a triangle anda trapezoid);Geometric Relationships 41