PrepShorts · Teaching notes · Class 6 Mathematics · Chapter 8, Playing with Constructions
Chapter 8 · Playing with Constructions
Naming corners in order, and why a rotated square is still a square
This video could not be loaded. Reload the page to try again.
Sign in with Google9 min.
Keep your place in this chapter — sign in, it’s free.Sign in
These teaching notes are for members
What the video covers, what to say before it, where a class usually goes wrong, and what to set afterwards. An account is free, and it opens every chapter of every book.
What to assume they know
- The two properties that define a rectangle, and the one more a square needs — the two conditions for a rectangle and the two for a square
- A point fixes a location; a segment is the shortest route between two points — a segment is named by its two endpoints
- Reading a position off a grid of dots
What they should be able to do
- Explain what makes an ordering of four corner labels a legitimate name
- List the valid names of a given rectangle, and say why two given orderings are rejected
- Decide, for a stated ordering, whether it names the figure shown
- State what a rotation changes and what it leaves alone
- Argue that a rotated square still satisfies both square conditions
- Extend the same argument to a rotated rectangle without repeating the work
- Judge whether a tilted figure on a dot grid is a square from the positions of its corners alone
Where it usually goes wrong
- "ABCD just means the corners are called A, B, C and D." Then ABDC would name the same figure, and the chapter says it does not. The order carries information: consecutive letters are joined by a side.
- "There is one correct name and the rest are wrong." There are eight, and the chapter prints all eight for one rectangle.
- "You have to start at A and go clockwise." Any corner, either direction.
- "A square standing on its corner is a diamond, not a square." Diamond is not a mathematical category. Run the two conditions: all sides equal, all angles 90°. Both still hold, so the figure is still a square.
- "Turning it must change something." It changes which side is at the top. It changes no length and no angle — and lengths and angles are all the definition mentions.
- "You can't tell on a dot grid without measuring." The chapter's own Think prompt asks precisely whether the corner positions settle it, and they do: two corners a fixed number of dots apart give a length you can compare without a ruler.
- "A rotated rectangle needs its own separate proof." It does not, and the chapter says as much: the argument used for the square did not depend on the sides being equal.
Questions to check understanding
- Write down all the names of this rectangle
- Say why ABDC fails as a name for the rectangle ABCD
- Which of PQSR, SPQR, RSPQ and QRSP fails to name the square shown? (the chapter's own p.193 item)
- A square is turned through 45°. Is it still a square? Justify by the conditions, not by appearance
- Draw three rotated squares on a dot grid with all corners on dots, and verify the conditions for each
- Explain why the argument for a rotated square also settles the rotated rectangle
- Given a tilted figure on a dot grid, decide whether it is a square without using any measuring instrument
Examples worth working on the board
- The eight names of Fig. 8.4, p.193. For the rectangle labelled A top-left, B top-right, C bottom-right, D bottom-left, the chapter prints ABCD and then seven more. Going one way round: BCDA, CDAB, DABC. Going the other way: ADCB, DCBA, CBAD, BADC. Those are the four starting points taken in each of the two directions round the boundary.
- The two rejects, p.193. ABDC and ACBD. In ABDC the step from B to D jumps across the figure rather than along a side; in ACBD the very first step does. That is the whole diagnosis, and it is worth making the explanation state it as a rule the student can apply rather than a list to memorise.
- The count. Four letters can be arranged in 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 24 orders. Valid names are four starting corners times two directions, so 8. Sixteen of the 24 orderings name nothing. The chapter prints neither number; they are supplied here as inputs.
- The multiple-choice square, p.193. A square is printed with S at the top left, P at the top right, R at the bottom left and Q at the bottom right — checked against p.193, since those labels are artwork. Going round it one way gives S, P, Q, R; the other way gives S, R, Q, P. The four options offered are PQSR, SPQR, RSPQ and QRSP. Three of them are rotations of one of those two walks; PQSR is not, because it steps from Q to S across the figure. PQSR is the odd one out.
- The rotated square, p.193. The chapter prints a filled square upright and the same square turned so that it stands on a corner, then walks both square conditions again: sides still equal, angles still 90°. Checked against p.193 — both figures are artwork.
- The rotated rectangle, p.194. Drawn on a slant at the top of the page, with the text noting that the same reasoning carries over. Checked against p.194.
- The three Figure it Out tasks, p.194. Reproduce the Fig. 8.3 arrangement on dot paper with the four squares placed symmetrically; identify which of four tilted figures on a dot grid are squares; and draw at least three rotated squares and rectangles with every corner landing on a dot. The middle task is the one that carries this topic — see The two properties that define a rectangle, and the one more a square needs for the reading of those four figures.
Figures to have open
- Fig. 8.4 with its four labels, and a movement of the boundary walk. Redraw.
- The 24-ordering grid for section 4. Not in the book; an added device.
- The printed multiple-choice square with S, P, R, Q in the positions given above. The label positions matter to the answer, so this must be drawn faithfully.
- The upright square beside the same square turned onto its corner, plus a slanted rectangle. Redraw rather than reproduce the printed art.
- A dot grid with a tilted square on it, dots visible and countable.
- No photograph or dataset is required.
Where this sits in the book
- NCERT Ganita Prakash, Class 6, Chapter 8 "Playing with Constructions", §8.2 "Squares and Rectangles", p.193 — the list of names, the two rejects, the order-of-travel rule, the multiple-choice square, and the sub-heading "Rotated Squares and Rectangles" with the turned square beneath it
- §8.2, p.194 — the rotated rectangle and the three Figure it Out tasks
- §8.5, pp.203 and 207, where the naming convention is relied on: the diagonal written PR, and the equal-sides step written AD = BC