Triangles and Quadrilaterals: The Kite Festival

It’s the Kite Festival! Diamond kites fly high in the sky and strings of triangle flags flap in the wind. Every kite and flag is a triangle or a quadrilateral (a 4-sided shape).

Remember: Triangles get their names from their sides: equilateral has 3 equal sides, isosceles has 2 equal sides, and scalene has no equal sides. Quadrilaterals: a square has 4 equal sides and 4 square corners; a rectangle has 4 square corners, with 2 long and 2 short sides; a rhombus has 4 equal sides, like a diamond kite; a trapezoid has just 1 pair of sides that run side by side and never meet (some countries call it a trapezium).

Magic trick: Equilateral sounds like equal: every side the same. For the other triangles, count the matching sides: 2 match is isosceles, none match is scalene.