Shape and spatial relations photos
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Click on the drop-down menus below to see specific questions you can ask and math you can discuss for each of these photos.
Here are general questions you can ask about each photo:
What do you see? or, What do you notice?
How did you know?
Can you use these manipulatives to show the math in this photo?
Can you draw a picture or a diagram to show the math in this photo?
What are some different ways to solve this problem?
What math questions can you ask about this photo?
*Note that these pictures can be used to discuss ideas related to shape and spatial relations, but you'll also see examples of other types of math questions, as well.
I see some cubes stacked on top of one another. How many cubes are there in all?
If we put two cubes together, what shape will it make? What if we put four cubes together? How many cubes do we need to put together to make a larger cube?
How many more cubes should I add to this structure to make an even number of rows and columns?
How many faces does a cube have? How many edges? How many vertices?
What shape is each face? What can you tell me about this shape?
Can you name a shape that’s similar to a cube? How are they similar?
Can you name a shape that’s different than a cube? How are they different?
What shapes do you see on the building? How do you know?
What can you tell me about this shape? How many sides does it have? How many angles? Is the number of sides the same as the number of angles?
What’s another shape that has 4 straight sides and 4 angles?
Are all shapes with 4 straight sides and 4 angles called rectangles?
How many rectangles can we find hidden in the picture?
If we cut a rectangle in half, what shape will we make?
Can you find any lines of symmetry? What happens if we fold this photo along the line of symmetry?
Encourage your students to use spatial language to describe the location of each item in the photo: Where is the tea (on top of the almond butter, to the right of the salsa.) Where is the spaghetti? (behind the salsa), etc.
Which food is underneath the beef broth? Which food is in between the almond butter and the pineapples? Which food is on the right of the salsa?
How many food containers do you see?
What shapes do you see? What can you tell me about those shapes?
Which container is the tallest? The shortest? The widest? The thinnest?
Pick two containers and describe how they are similar and how they are different.
Which container do you think can hold the least? Which container can hold the most?
How many windows are there? How did you know?
How many rows of windows are there? How many columns are there? How many windows are there altogether?
What kind of lines do you see in this photo? (E.g., straight lines, curved lines, parallel lines, intersecting lines)
Do we see any shapes? What do we call those shapes? What are some characteristics of those shapes?
If we rotate this rectangular window 45 degrees, will it still be a rectangle? What will it look like if we rotate it 90 degrees?
What kind of lines do you see?
Can you find any intersecting lines? Parallel lines? Diagonal lines?
What shapes do you see? What can you tell me about those shapes?
What happens when we cut a square in half? What shape can we make?
What happens when we cut a square in fourths? What shape can we make?
What shapes do you see? What can you tell me about those shapes?
Which container is the tallest? The shortest? The widest? The thinnest?
Pick two containers and describe how they are similar and how they are different.
Which container do you think can hold the least? Which container can hold the most?
I see some cubes stacked on top of one another. How many cubes are there in all?
If we put two cubes together, what shape will it make? What if we put four cubes together? How many cubes do we need to put together to make a larger cube?
How many more cubes should I add to this structure to make an even number of rows and columns?
How many faces does a cube have? How many edges? How many vertices?
What shape is each face? What can you tell me about this shape?
Can you name a shape that’s similar to a cube? How are they similar?
Can you name a shape that’s different than a cube? How are they different?
What shapes do you see? What can you tell me about those shapes?
Are all shapes with 8 sides called octagons? How else can you draw an octagon?
Is this octagon symmetric? How do you know? Where can we draw lines of symmetry?
Which shape has more sides?
How many sides does the octagon have? How many angles? Do all polygons have the same number of sides as angles?
If we take away 2 sides, how many sides will the shape have? What do we call this shape?
What if we take away 3 sides, how many sides will the shape have? What do we call this shape?
How are these containers similar? How are they different?
What shape do you see? What can you tell me about this shape?
Which container is the tallest? The shortest? The widest? The thinnest?
Which container do you think can hold the most? Which can hold the least?
If you had a pound of flour you needed to store, which container would you use? Why?
Let’s say these containers were empty. What else would you store in each container? Why?
How many containers do you see? Which container is first in line? Second? Last?
How would you rearrange these containers to put them in size order?
How many rectangles can you find in this photo? How are they rectangles different? How are they similar?
How many different ways can we divide a rectangle in half? What shapes do we get when we divide the rectangle in half?
How many different ways can we divide a rectangle in fourths? What shapes do we get when we divide the rectangle in half?
What digits do you see on the door? What’s the smallest number you can make with those digits? What’s the largest number you can make with those digits? What sum do we get if we add those digits?
What product will we get if we multiply those digits? Will the product be the same if we multiply the numbers in a different order? (e.g., 7 x 6 x 0 x 8 versus 8 x 0 x 6 x 7?)
Make a guess: Will we get a larger number if we add these digits or multiply them? Why?
What shape do you see on the fence? How would you describe that shape?
If we turn the shape like this (demonstrate a 45 degree turn), would it still be a square?
Can you name a shape that’s similar to a square? How are they similar?
Can you name a shape that’s different from a square? How are they different?
How many ways can we divide the square in half? What shape will we get if we divide it in half?
How many ways can we divide the square in fourths? What shape will we get if we divide it in fourths?
If the shape had 5 sides, what would we call it? What if it had 6 sides?
Let’s make an estimate: How long is one side of each square? If that’s the length, what would be its perimeter? What about its area? If you put together 2 squares any way you want, what would be the perimeter and area of the new shape?
What shape do you see? How would you describe this shape? How many sides and angles does it have?
How many lines of symmetry can we draw on this shape so that if we fold the shape along the line, both sides will line up exactly?
Are all shapes with 6 straight sides and angles called hexagons? Can you draw another hexagon that looks different than this one?
Let’s say each side of this hexagon is the same length. Estimate the length of each side. If that’s the length, what is the perimeter of the hexagon? What is the area? How did you know?
Can you divide the hexagon to make a new shape? Try to divide the hexagon a few different ways. What shapes can you make?
How many squares can you find? How many rectangles? Are there more squares or rectangles?
How many columns of rectangles do you see? How many rows? How many is that altogether?
What shape can we make if we cut a rectangle in half? What if we cut a rectangle into fourths?
Can you find any lines of symmetry? What would happen if we folded this garage door along the line of symmetry?
Do you see any digits in this photo? How do we read this number? How can we rearrange these digits to make a larger number? What’s the largest number we can make? If we add these numbers, what will we get? What if we multiply them?
If we add the numbers from left to right and then from right to left, will we get the same sum? If we multiply the numbers from left to right and then from right to left, will we get the same product?
Where would you draw a line of symmetry in the photo? How do you know? What would happen if you folded the photo along that line of symmetry?
What shapes do you see? How are these shapes similar? How are they different?
What shapes do you see in the car? How are those shapes similar? How are they different?
How many wheels does a car have? If we had 2 cars, how many wheels would it have? What if we had 5 cars? 10 cars?
Let’s make a guess: is your family’s car longer or shorter than this car?
Can you find a line of symmetry in the fence? Where is the line of symmetry? How do you know? What would happen if you folded the fence along that line of symmetry?
What shapes do you see in the fence? What can you tell me about those shapes?
Make a guess: Do you see more rectangles or squares in the fence?
What kind of lines do you see? Can you find any intersecting lines? Parallel lines? Vertical lines? Horizontal lines?
I see some cubes stacked on top of one another. How many cubes are there in all?
If we put two cubes together, what shape will it make? What if we put four cubes together? How many cubes do we need to put together to make a larger cube?
What shape do all these cubes make, when they’re stacked like this?
How many faces does a cube have? How many edges? How many vertices?
What shape is each face? What can you tell me about this shape?
Can you name a shape that’s similar to a cube? How are they similar?
Can you name a shape that’s different than a cube? How are they different?
Where would you draw a line of symmetry in the face of the house? What would happen if you folded the house along that line of symmetry?
How many windows are there? Are there more windows on the second floor or the first floor? What’s the ratio of windows on the second floor to the first floor?
What shapes do you see? What can you tell me about that shape?
Could you make a roof with another shape, beside a triangular prism? If so, which shape would you use?
What shape do you see? How would you describe this shape? How many faces does it have? What shape are each of its faces?
How are these containers similar? How are they different?
Which rectangular prism is the tallest? Which is the shortest? Which is the widest? Which is the thinnest?
Which container do you think holds the most? Which holds the least? How do you know?
How many columns of street lamps do you see? How many lamps are in each column? How many street lamps is that in total?
Do you see anything symmetrical in this photo? Where would you draw a line of symmetry? What would happen if you folded the photo along the link of symmetry?
What shape do you see? How would you describe this shape? How many sides and angles does it have?
How many lines of symmetry can we draw on this shape so that if we fold the shape along the line, both sides will line up exactly?
Are all shapes with 6 straight sides and angles called hexagons? Can you draw another hexagon that looks different than this one?
About how many hexagons are there? How did you come up with that estimate?
Let’s say each side of this hexagon is the same length. Estimate the length of each side. If that’s the length, what is the perimeter of the hexagon? What is the area? How did you know?
What can you make when you put together 4 hexagons? What about 7? What about 10?
What shapes do you see? Can you describe these shapes?
How are the shapes different? How are they the same?
How many sides does the arrow have? Can you draw another shape with that many sides?
If we turn the yellow square around, will it still be a square?
Which shape has the most number of angles? Which shape has the least number of angles?
How would you describe the angles in the octagon? How is that similar or different than the angles in the square?
Do you see anything symmetric in this picture? Can you find the line of symmetry?
What looks similar in this picture?
How many doors are there?
What type of lines do you see in the picture?
If I folded this picture in half, what would you notice?
Do you see any digits in this photo? How do we read this number? How can we rearrange the digits to make a smaller number? What’s the smallest number we can make? How can we rearrange these digits to make a larger number? What’s the largest number we can make? If we add these numbers, what will we get? What if we multiply them?
What shapes do you see?
What can you tell me about these shapes?
What shape are their faces?
How are these shapes similar?
How are they different?
What shapes do you see? How are these shapes different? How are they similar?
How many lines of symmetry can we draw on each shape so that if we fold the shape along the line, both sides will line up exactly?
What other design can we make if we put together a hexagon and 3 triangles? What about 2 hexagons and 6 triangles?
What type of triangle is this? What do you know about equilateral triangles? If you divide the triangle in half, will you make 2 equilateral triangles? What triangles will you make?