Video Transcript
Squares
In this video, we’re going to learn
how to identify squares, no matter what size they are, whether they’re different
colors, or which way around we position them. This shape is a square. Let’s trace around the outside and
see what we notice. How many sides does a square
have? We can count one, two, three, four
sides. We could also show this by placing
a counter on each side. One, two, three, four. So the first thing we can say about
squares is that they have four straight sides.
What do you notice about how long
each side is compared to all the others? Well, if we look closely, we can
see that each of the four sides is exactly the same length. And so our second fact about
squares is that all of the sides are equal. They’re all the same length. Now, what can we tell about the
corners of a square? Another mathematical word that we
sometimes use to describe a corner is a vertex. And if we’ve got more than one of
them, another word for corners is vertices. Let’s count the vertices on our
square. One, two, three, four. And if we look at the shape of each
corner, we could describe them as square corners because we can draw little squares
in them.
Now, we’ve got a little checklist
for identifying squares. They must have four straight
sides. Each of the sides needs to be the
same length or equal. And they must also have four square
corners or vertices. So a shape may be a different size,
a different color, or even if it’s being turned into a new position. As long as the shape has four
straight sides, they’re all equal, and it has four square corners, we know it’s a
square.
Just because we’ve changed the
color or made it a bit smaller or turned it into a new position doesn’t mean it’s
not a square anymore. Think about what happens if you sit
in a new position in your classroom. Of course, you’ve still got the
same name. Well, it’s the same with
shapes. We can turn them, put them in a new
position, but they’re still the same. Now it’s time to practice what
we’ve learned. Let’s try some questions where we
have to identify squares.
Which of these is a square?
In this question, we’re shown three
different 2D shapes. We need to identify or spot which
one is a square. To help us do this, let’s remind
ourselves what makes a square a square. The first thing we know about
squares is that they have four straight sides. Do any of these shapes have four
straight sides? Our first shape does have four
sides. It could be a square. And the same is true of our second
shape. Perhaps this is the square. But if we look at our final shape,
we can see that this only has three straight sides. This is a triangle. We know the answer is one of the
first two shapes, and let’s forget about the triangle.
What else do we know about
squares? With a square, all of its sides are
the same length. They’re all equal. If we look at our first shape. We can see that these two sides are
a lot longer than these two sides. The size of this shape are
different lengths. This isn’t a square. It’s a rectangle. It looks like we found out which of
our shapes is a square. Are all sides of this shape the
same length? Yes, they are. Out of our three shapes, the shape
that’s a square is the one with four straight sides whose sides are all equal.
If I turn this shape so it stands
on its corner, will it still be a square?
In this problem, we can see a
picture of a square. We know it’s a square because it
has four straight sides. All of the sides are the same
length or equal. And it has four square corners. These are the things that help to
tell us that it’s a square. Now, the question asks us, if we
turn this shape so that it stands on its corner, will it still be a square? And this is a video, and in a
moment, we are going to turn this shape so it stands on its corner. But imagine you weren’t watching a
video. How could we find out the
answer? All we really need to do is to turn
our heads, look at the shape in a different position as if it was standing on its
corner. Why don’t you do that now?
Here’s what our square looks like
if we turn it so it’s standing on its corner. It still has four straight
sides. Each of the sides are exactly the
same length. And it still has four square
corners. In fact, the only thing that’s
changed about this shape is that it’s turned slightly. And we know that if we turn a shape
slightly, it’s still the same shape. If we turn this shape so it stands
on its corner, will it still be a square? Yes, it will.
How many squares are in this
picture?
Here’s a picture of a dog, and it’s
made out of lots of different shapes. Our job is to count the squares
because we’re asked how many squares are in the picture? What do we know about squares that
can help us spot them? Well, firstly, we know that squares
have got straight sides. Our dog’s eye and nose are made of
a shape without any straight sides. It’s a circle. So we can’t count these shapes.
We also know that squares have got
four sides. Triangles have three straight
sides, so we can’t include these. If we look carefully at the
picture, we can see that all of the other shapes have four straight sides, but
they’re not all squares. All of the sides of a square are
equal. They’re all the same length. And if we look at our picture, we
can only see two shapes like this. This is a square, and also this is
a square. All the other shapes with four
sides are rectangles. The number of squares in the
picture is two.
So what have we learned in this
video? We’ve learned how to identify
squares, no matter what size they are, what color they are, or what position we put
them in.
