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Shapes in the Alphabet

Stage: 1 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1

We are going to look at capital letters, not for writing or spelling, but as shapes with various different properties.

DP

Some letters have horizontal lines, some have vertical lines and some have both. Some letters enclose a space and others do not. Some can be drawn without taking your pencil off the paper or going over the same line more than once, others can't.

In this challenge we are going to find sets of letters that go together because they share some features.

Here are some letter shapes that go together in a set -

DP

What properties do they share? What other letters could go with them?



Scroll down to find some more letters in the set.

Scroll down


Here you are:

Were you right or do you think differently now?

Scroll down to find some more letters in the set.

Scroll down


Here you are.
DPRJCU

Can you find other letters that share properties with these letters? There are ten of them.

Now we are going to try with a different set of letters. Here are two of them.

KN
What properties do they share? What other letters could go with them?

Scroll down to find some more letters in the set.

scroll down



Here you are.

KNMV

Were you right or do you think differently now?

Can you find other letters that go with these? There are nine of them.

Now you can make your own sets of letters. Try challenging a friend in the same way with your sets of letters. You might find this interactivity useful:


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The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice. More information on many of our other activities can be found here.
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NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.