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6th grade · Math · Unit 15 of 19

Four Quadrants

Points with negative coordinates

What your child practices

Plotting and naming points in all four quadrants, reflecting points across an axis, and finding distances and areas on the coordinate plane.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 6.11 · graphing points in all four quadrants

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Left of 0 is negative x. Below 0 is negative y.
  2. Quadrant I is (+, +), II is (−, +), III is (−, −), IV is (+, −).
  3. Across an axis, one coordinate changes sign.

Example: How far apart are (−3, 2) and (5, 2)? Same y, so count across. 3 to get to 0, then 5 more: 3 + 5. Answer: 8 units

Four Quadrants in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 15 of 19 in 6th grade Math, after Volume & Capacity and before Data & Graphs.

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

    How far apart are (2, −2) and (2, 3)?

    • 5
    • 8
    • 1
    • 3

  2. Question 2

    The point (7, 7) is reflected across the x-axis. Where does it land?

    • (7, −7)
    • (−7, 7)
    • (−7, −7)
    • (7, 7)

  3. Question 3

    What are the coordinates of point P?

    -6-6-5-5-4-4-3-3-2-2-1-100112233445566P
    • (−4, 3)
    • (3, −4)
    • (−4, −3)
    • (4, 3)

  4. Question 4

    Which quadrant is the point (1, 6) in?

    • Quadrant IV
    • Quadrant III
    • Quadrant I
    • Quadrant II

  5. Question 5

    A rectangle has corners (−5, −3), (2, −3), (2, 2) and (−5, 2). What is its area?

    • 24 square units
    • 35 square units
    • 3 square units
    • 42 square units
    • 32 square units

  6. Question 6

    What are the coordinates of point P?

    -6-6-5-5-4-4-3-3-2-2-1-100112233445566P
    • (5, 4)
    • (4, −5)
    • (−5, −4)
    • (−5, 4)

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