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5th grade · Math · Unit 11 of 15

Parallel Lines and Quadrilaterals

Sort four-sided shapes

What your child practices

Finding parallel and perpendicular edges and sides, and sorting quadrilaterals (rectangles, squares, trapezoids, parallelograms and rhombuses) by their sides and angles.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 5.5 · classifying two-dimensional figures in a hierarchy by their attributes

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Parallel lines stay the same distance apart and never meet.
  2. Perpendicular lines meet at a right angle.
  3. Sort quadrilaterals by parallel sides and equal sides.

Example: A quadrilateral has two pairs of parallel sides and four right angles. What could it be? Two pairs of parallel sides: a parallelogram. Four right angles: a rectangle. Answer: A rectangle

Parallel Lines and Quadrilaterals in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 11 of 15 in 5th grade Math, after Area & Perimeter and before Converting Units.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Parallel lines are lines that…

    • cross at a square corner
    • touch at one point
    • never cross

  2. Question 2

    A rectangle has…

    • two pairs of equal, parallel sides
    • no parallel sides
    • only one pair of parallel sides

  3. Question 3

    Which quadrilateral has exactly one pair of parallel sides?

    • a rhombus
    • a rectangle
    • a trapezoid

  4. Question 4

    Which shape is NOT a quadrilateral?

    • a pentagon
    • a rhombus
    • a square

  5. Question 5

    A parallelogram has…

    • no parallel sides
    • exactly one pair of parallel sides
    • two pairs of parallel sides

  6. Question 6

    Which shape can be sorted as both a rhombus and a parallelogram?

    • a square
    • a trapezoid with one parallel pair
    • a kite

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