Teaching Strategies, Tactics, and Methods

What is a Scalene Triangle? Parts and properties

A Scalene Triangle is any triangle where all three sides and angles are different lengths, just like in the illustration below. This also means that each angle has to be different. They tend to be easy to spot because they look a little wonky.

All sides of the scalene triangle are unequal in length.	There are no lines of symmetry in a scalene triangle.	The angle opposite the longest side of the triangle is the most significant.
E.g., a scalene triangle could have sides of 4cm, 5cm, and 8cm.	It cannot be divided into two halves.	See the image below for an example.

Because of their uneven qualities, scalene triangles are never symmetrical, giving them a distinctive lopsided look. Like all other triangles, the total angles in scalene triangles add up to 180°.

Types of Scalene Triangle

There are three main types of scalene triangles:

• Right-angled scalene triangle– these triangles have one angle of 90° and two more differing values. All three sides are of differing lengths.
• Acute scalene triangle– in these triangles, all three angles are less than 90°, and all three sides have differing lengths.
• Obtuse scalene triangle– these triangles have one angle over 90° and two less than 90°. Again, all three sides are of differing lengths.

Spotting a Scalene Triangle

Like all triangles, scalene triangles have three sides and three angles that all add up to 180°. The size and shape of a scalene triangle can vary a lot, but there are a few things to bear in mind that will help you to tell a scalene triangle apart from the others:

If you have a ruler available, you can measure the sides of a given triangle. If they’re all different lengths, then it is a scalene triangle.

If you have a protractor to hand, use that to measure the angles of the triangle. Again, if they’re all different, it’s a scalene triangle.

If you don’t have a way of finding out the length or angles of a triangle, it can be tricky to say for sure whether it’s a scalene or not. That said, because they’re always unsymmetrical, scalene triangles tend to have a bit of a ‘wonky’ look that can be a giveaway.

What is an Adverb of Place?

Adverbs of place tell us where things happened – they change or add meaning to a sentence. So they’re also sometimes called spatial adverbs.

Adverbs of place are usually used after the principal verb or clause that they modify.

How do you use adverbs of place?

An adverb of place is always used to talk about the location where the verb’s action is being carried out. Adverbs of place are usually placed after a sentence’s object or main verb. However, adverbs of place can be directional.

To learn more about how to use adverbs of place with your students accurately, check out these simple adverbs of place rules:

• Many adverbs of place indicate movement in a particular direction and end in the letters “-ward or -wards.”
• An adverb of place always talks about where the verb’s action is being carried out.
• Adverbs of place can be directional, indicate distantly, or indicate an object’s position about another thing. For example, below, between, above, behind, through, around, and so forth.
• Adverbs of place are typically placed after a sentence’s object or main verb.

28 Examples of Adverb of Place

Adverbs of place can be directional, which means they tell us the direction of something. For example:

Adverb of Place	Example Sentence
Up	The kite is up there!
Down	The shop is down the road.
Around	They looked around the park.
North	The house is north of here.
South	She walked south.
East	We’re going east.
West	It’s to the west.

They can also refer to the distance of something, such as how close or far away something is.

Adverb of Place	Example Sentence
Nearby	The beach is nearby.
far away	She lives far away.
miles apart	The two shopping centers are miles apart.
close by	The new zoo is close by.

Adverbs of place can also tell us the position of an object about another thing.

Adverb of Place	Example Sentence
Above	He lives above the shop.
Below	We keep the mugs on the shelf below the glasses.
in front	The hedges are in front of the house.
Behind	There are flowers behind the garden bench.
Through	The exit is through that door.
Around	There are lots of people around.
on top	Birds sit on top of their nests.
underneath/beneath	The plant’s roots grow underneath/beneath the ground.

Other adverbs of place show movement in a particular direction. These typically end in the suffix -wards.

Adverb of Place	Example Sentence
forwards	She’s walking forwards.
backward	To moonwalk, you have to learn to walk backward.
upwards	Look upwards, and you’ll see the sky.
downwards	The elevator is going downwards.
onwards	We have to keep moving onwards.

There are several adverbs of place which end in the suffix -where. They express the idea of a location rather than a specific one.

Adverb of Place	Example Sentence
Somewhere	Her glasses have to be around here somewhere.
Nowhere	The last marble was nowhere to be found.
Everywhere	In the spring, there are flowers everywhere.
Anywhere	Is there anywhere left to go?

 

Adverbs of Place ending in -where

Adverbs of place that end in -where express the idea of location without specifying a specific location or direction. For example:

• I would like to go somewhere warm for my vacation.
• I keep running into Sally everywhere!
• Is there anywhere I can find a perfect plate of spaghetti around here?
• I have nowhere to go.

Adverbs of Place that express both location and movement

Some adverbs of place describe both movement and location at the same time. For example:

• The child went indoors.
• He lived and worked abroad.
• Water always flows downhill.
• The wind pushed us sideways.

Adverbs of Place that are also prepositions

Many adverbs of place can also be used as prepositions. When used as prepositions, they must be followed by a noun. Examples of adverbs of place that are also prepositions include:

• I am wearing a necklace around my neck.
• Let’s hide behind the shed.
• John made his way carefully down the cliff.
• I dropped the letter in the mailbox.

FAQ: Adverbs of Place

1. Is home an adverb of place?
   While the word ‘home’ is usually a noun, it can also be used in some instances as an adverb of place.

‘Home’ isn’t a specific, physical place – it’s a different place for everyone and is even sometimes described as a feeling – which is why it can be used as an adverb.

For example, the sentence, ‘I went home,’ works as an adverb of place that tells us where the speaker ‘went.’

2. Where is an adverb placed in a sentence?

When modifying a sentence, adverbs can be placed in four positions:

• In the beginning.
• In the end.
• Before all the other verbs.

3. What is an adverb of place and time?

Adverbs of time are used to say when something happens. They are commonly used at the end of a sentence but may also be used at the beginning in some instances. Examples of adverbs of time include:

• I often eat vegetarian food.

Adverbs of place tell us where things happened – they change or add meaning to a sentence. They’re also sometimes called spatial adverbs. Examples of adverbs of lace include:

• John looked around, but he couldn’t see the monkey.
• I searched everywhere I could think of.
• I’m going back to school.

4. Are ‘Here’ and ‘There’ adverbs of place?

‘Here’ and ‘there’ are some of the most common adverbs of place. They give a location relevant to the speaker rather than another subject or object in the sentence. ‘Here’ means in the same place as the speaker, and ‘there’ means someplace away from the speaker.

Examples of ‘here’ and ‘there’ as an adverb of place:

• Come over here.
• Dinner is over there.
• The food is in here.

‘Here’ and ‘there’ are also combined with prepositions to make adverbial phrases about the place.

• There are birds up there.
• Come over here and look at this.
• There’s something under here.

Root Words

Root words in English are essential words with no prefixes or suffixes added to them. Read through the rest of this handy teaching wiki to learn more about what root words are and what root words look like in English, with root word examples, as well as a great collection of resources and teaching aids to support your lesson planning this term.

Independent root words examples in English and their meaning

• Act – to move or do (root word with added prefix or suffix – actor, acting, re-enact).
• Crypt – to hide (root word with added prefix or suffix – cryptic, cryptography).
• Ego – I (root word with added prefix or suffix – egotist, narcissistic, egomaniac).
• Form- shape (root word with added prefix or suffix – conform, formulate, reform).
• Legal – related to the law (root word with added prefix or suffix – illegal, legalities, paralegal).
• Meter – measure (root word with added prefix or suffix – kilometer, millimeter, pedometer).
• Norm – typical (root word with added prefix or suffix – abnormal, normality, paranormal).

What is the difference between root words and base words?

Base words are similar to root words but are not precisely the same. A base word is a standalone English word that can also form other words by using prefixes and suffixes (whereas root words cannot always be used as an independent words). When a prefix or suffix is added to a base word, the word’s meaning changes, and a new word is formed.

What are some KS2 root words examples?

Suffixes – ‘er’ and ‘-est’ is used to create comparative and superlative adjectives.

Example:
high / higher / the highest
Warm / warmer/ warmest.

Some root words can have words added to change their meaning entirely.

Example:
normal / ab – normal / normal – ity
place / re – place / place – d

Adding ‘jelly’ to the front of the word ‘fish’ makes ‘jellyfish,’ and adding ‘sun’ to the start of ‘flower’ creates ‘sunflower.’

More root words in English – KS2 examples

Root word	Prefix added	Suffix added
Marine	submarine	mariner
View	review	viewed
play	replay	player played
heat	reheat	heated, heater
behave	misbehave	behavior behaved
place	replace	replaced
normal	abnormal	normality, normalize
want	unwanted	wanted

What are some common prefixes that are added to root words in English?

• Dis-, De-: Opposite of
• Trans-: In-between, transcend
• Inter-: Between, among
• Sub-: Under
• Non-: Not, negative
• Un-: Opposite
• Semi-: Half
• Re-: Back, again
• Mid-: Middle
• Mis-: Wrongly

As we might already know, a sentence is a grammatical unit made up of one or more words. In addition, every sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop or punctuation mark. But what is a simple sentence?

A simple sentence in English is a sentence that’s made up of a single independent clause. In a simple sentence, there’s only one subject and often only one verb. In other words, a simple sentence is the most basic sentence that we could create!

What are ten simple sentence examples?

Now that we have a basic understanding let’s look at ten simple sentence examples. By looking at a few simple sentences in English, we’ll be able to learn what they look like and how we can identify them:

Hugh went to the shops.

Terry was late for the bus.

The car ran a red light.

I bought a new computer.

We went to the cinema.

Martha bought a new dog.

The bus was late.

We played football.

She often reads books.

They walked to the park.

As we can see from these simple sentence examples, each sentence comprises only a single independent clause. Moreover, we can also see that no dependent provisions are attached to the sentences.

How do you write a simple sentence?

By now, we’ve learned a bit about simple sentences and seen some simple sentence examples. But how can we write our simple sentences in English?

When writing a simple sentence, the key thing to remember is that it must be an independent clause that can stand on its own without other clauses to give it meaning. However, these can vary in length quite considerably. For instance:

Maurice swam.

I ate.

Even though these simple sentence examples are only two words long, they still count as simple sentences. This is because they contain both a subject and a predicate (or verb). However, we can also write longer, simple sentences such as this one:

Clara taught herself how to play the piano.

When we think of simple sentences in English, we might imagine they have to be very basic. However, longer sentences can still be simple sentences. This example sentence contains two verbs: ‘taught’ and ‘play.’ However, it includes a single subject and forms only one independent clause.

Here’s how this sentence might look if it were made up of more than one clause:

Clara wanted to play the piano, so she taught herself.

As we can see, this sentence doesn’t count as a simple sentence in English. This is because it’s made up of an independent clause, ‘Clara wanted to play the piano,’ followed by a subordinate clause which needs the main clause to give it context. A comma separates the two clauses.

What are the other sentence types

Now that we’ve seen some simple sentence examples and know how to write a simple sentence let’s take a quick look at the other main sentence types. These are:

Compound sentences: A sentence that’s made up of two independent clauses. In a compound sentence, these clauses are connected by a coordinating conjunction, such as ‘and’ or ‘but.’

Complex sentence: A complex sentence is a sentence that contains an independent clause and one or more subordinating (or dependent) clauses. These subordinating clauses rely on the independent clause to give meaning and context; thus, they can’t function as complete sentences.

Compound-complex: A compound-complex sentence is a little bit trickier to write. These consist of two or more independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.

What is an informal letter?

An informal letter is the type of letter you would write to someone you know, for example, a friend or family member.

They’re written in a more friendly and familiar style than a formal letter that follows strict layout and style rules.

Informal letters are more flexible when following these rules and can take many forms.

Why write a letter to your friend?

Nowadays, receiving or writing a letter to your friend is rare. This is due to instant messaging, emails, and other technologies that make communication more immediate.

But, the excitement of receiving a letter remains. And the act of writing a letter has its benefits too.

Setting time aside to write a letter to your friend shows them you have been thinking of them and makes them feel special. Writing is also an excellent chance to express yourself and order your thoughts.

What kinds of letters might you write to a friend?

Informal letters are written for a whole range of reasons. You might write a letter to your friend to:

• Share news
• Say thank you
• Wish them a happy birthday
• Invite them to an event
• Congratulate them on something
• Apologize
• Tell them about a holiday

Features of an informal letter

Informal letters have different features in comparison to formal letters. They aren’t as rigid in the way they are structured or written. And this means when you write a letter to your friend, you can have some fun by breaking the usual letter-writing rules.

How you structure your letter will depend on your writing type. But there are a few standard features that are noticed when writing informally. These are:

• A friendly opening and close
• A date
• Informal and chatty language
• Written in first person
• Paragraphs
• Addresses of the sender and recipient (depending on the type of letter)

Teaching letter writing to children

Children will be taught how to write various letter types in school. These might be informal letters, postcards, or formal letters of complaint or persuasion.

Learning to write letters will start with children exploring the features of a letter. To do this, they will examine an exemplar and talk about what they notice. Next, they will be encouraged to think about the questions – How is it laid out? How is it written? What words have been chosen and why?

Once they are familiar with how a letter is formed, they will move on to writing their own. The key to engaging children in letter writing is to give them purpose. Once they have a reason to write a letter, they can then learn how to construct paragraphs and think about the style of language they will use in their writing.

Fun ideas for letter-writing activities with kids

Engaging children in the topic of letter writing is easy because there are so many exciting cross-curricular learning opportunities.

A term’s topic could start with a mysterious letter from a book character. This will excite children and encourage them to write a letter back in response.

Or, you could tie in some letter writing with a visit to the local post office. If you’re fortunate, maybe you could persuade the local postperson to visit your class and discuss how the postal service works. Doing this will give learning a context, which will help children remember things better in the future.

Direct Speech

Direct speech, also known as direct discourse, relays the exact words spoken. One way to tell when direct speech is used is to look for quotation marks. Another useful indicator is the presence of a reporting verb or a signal phrase.

What is Direct Speech?

If you’re looking for a straightforward definition of direct speech, you’re in the right place. So put, direct speech is a sentence where the exact words spoken are written in speech marks, quotation marks, or inverted commas.

Direct Speech can be used in multiple written texts. For example, it is widely used in fiction, which can help readers understand characters better.

Direct Speech Examples

If you’re struggling to picture how direct speech might work, here are some examples to help you get the hang of it.

“What are your plans for tonight?” Said Lisa.

“I don’t have any!” Said, Janine

“Do you fancy going out for a meal?” Said Alex.

The Rules of Direct Speech

Children typically begin to learn about direct speech when they are seven to eight. At this time, kids will learn what direct speech is, why it is used, and what general rules they should follow. Here are some of the main reasons why writers use natural speech.

• It can be beneficial for expanding on the development of characters in a story. This is because, by showing the things that people say and the ways that they tell them, readers will learn more about their personalities.
• It can also be beneficial for driving the plot in stories.

Several fundamental rules must be followed when writing a direct speech. Kids must master these rules to effectively and correctly use direct speech. Here is a list of the rules and some direct speech examples to help you get the hang of it.

Speech Marks

In direct speech, punctuation separates the spoken words, or dialogue, from the rest of the text. Therefore, the words directly spoken by a character, i.e., the direct speech, should be placed inside speech marks.

For example:

“Can I ask you a question?” Emily inquired.

“I’m far too tired to play football today,” yawned Sam.

There is some nuance with this direct speech rule: some writers use double speech marks, and some use single speech marks. However, don’t be thrown off by this, as both are perfectly fine!

The only rule is to decide which type of speech marks you want to use and ensure consistency throughout your work. Therefore, you shouldn’t start your work using single speech marks and end it using double ones.

A New Speaker = A New Line

Another rule that must be followed when using direct speech is taking a new line each time a new person speaks. Direct speech is designed to help the reader follow the dialogue in a text. This is why it is so important to structure it. To help the reader follow who precisely is speaking, you must take a new line for each new speaker.

For example:

“I didn’t see you at school today,” said Hannah concernedly.

“I wasn’t feeling very well, so I took the day off sick,” explained Tom.

“You poor thing! I hope you’re feeling better tomorrow,” Hannah remarked, hugging her friend.

“Me too,” Tom pouted.

It’s also important to note that each new line of direct speech should start with a capital letter.

Reporting Clauses

A reporting clause occurs after the direct speech and indicates to the reader who is speaking.

For example:

“How was your holiday?” asked Mrs. Anderson.

In the example above, the reporting clause, ‘asked Mrs. Anderson’, tells us who is speaking in the text. Reporting clauses are not always necessary if it is clear who is speaking. This is why reporting clauses are often dropped in a text once a conversation between characters gets going.

Punctuation Inside Speech Marks

A punctuation mark should always be at the end of each direct speech section. If there is no reporting clause, this punctuation mark will likely be a complete stop, question mark, or exclamation mark.

For example:

“Help! I can’t swim!”

“Hello there, Amy. Can I help you?”

On the other hand, if there is a reporting clause, the punctuation mark will likely be a comma before the final speech marks.

For example:

“I am going to walk home with Mary after school,” Lisa explained.

Then, after the reporting clause, there tends to be a complete stop. This may come later on, however, if the sentence continues after the reporting clause.

For example:

“My mum said we can walk home together,” said Lisa as she packed her school bag.

Moving the reporting clause

Sometimes, the reporting clause is placed in the middle of a direct speech.

For example:

“I am excited to play hockey at the weekend,” said James, “My favorite instructor will be there.”

Even in this instance, you will note that the punctuation still goes inside the speech marks of the first section.

After the reporting clause, a punctuation mark must be used before the second set of direct speech starts. The punctuation mark should be a comma if the reporting clause is in the middle of a sentence. However, if the reporting clause is between two separate speech sentences, it should be a complete stop.

Reported Speech

The rules above are for punctuating direct speech, but we don’t need to use speech marks when punctuating reported speech.

Reported speech (sometimes known as indirect speech) is when we summarise or reword the address instead of quoting the direct words spoken by a person. For example:

Mrs. Wood claimed it had been a tough year for businesses across the country and pledged to keep her staff well-informed of any changes.

When punctuating reported speech, we only need to punctuate the sentence as we would any other sentence, without worrying about using any specific speech punctuation.

When do Children begin to learn about Direct Speech?

Children will begin to learn about Direct Speech in their third year of primary education. Teachers of Lower Key Stage 2 will usually outline the general rules of Direct Speech, which include:

• speech is opened with quotation marks, speech marks, or inverted commas
• each line of speech will start with a capital letter
• a reporting clause is used at the end of the sentence
• a full stop is placed at the end of the reporting clause
• each new character’s speech should begin on a new line

What is a concrete noun?

A noun is a word that describes a person, place, or thing. A concrete noun is a noun that can be physically experienced through one of the five senses. They are also known as proper nouns. Nouns are an essential part of a sentence, along with verbs and adjectives.

What’s the difference between a concrete noun and an abstract noun?

Nouns can be split into two categories: concrete nouns and abstract nouns. While concrete nouns are things you can experience through your senses, abstract nouns are ideas and concepts that can be understood but not physically experienced through the senses, such as love, justice, and happiness.

You can determine if a noun is concrete or abstract by asking yourself: is this something I can experience through one of the five senses?

Concrete noun examples

Sight:

• Flower
• Bridge
• Sky
• Building
• Traffic Light

Smell:

• Bread
• The sea
• Burgers
• Perfume
• Sweat

Taste:

• Pizza
• Medicine
• Apple
• Sweets
• Cakes

Hearing:

• Alarm
• Rain
• Singing
• Television
• Thunder

Touch:

• Skin
• Fur
• Leather
• Chair
• Money

How can I use a concrete noun in a sentence?

Here are some examples of sentences that include a concrete noun. In each sentence, the noun is highlighted in bold.

Lucy tied her shoe.

Yasmine ate her sandwich.

I went and answered the phone.

In these examples, the people (Lucy and Yasmine) and objects (sandwich, shoe, phone) are concrete nouns. They can all be physically experienced.

Past Tense

The past tense is a grammatical tense used to talk about something that happened in the past or the way something was in the past. It’s one of the three main tenses alongside present and future, and it has four kinds: past simple, past perfect, past continuous, and past perfect continuous.

What is the past tense?

The past tense expresses actions that have happened in the past. It’s one of the three main grammatical tenses, with the other two being present and future.

The past tense indicates that an event has already happened but can also display a state of being. For instance, something might have been in a different way or a different form in the past than it is today. In addition, it can be used to talk about something we have imagined. Here are a few examples of the past tense in action:

• I went for a run in the park.
• This used to be quite a lovely park.

What are the four types of past tense?

We’ve now figured out the past tense and when we might use it. But did you know that the past tense can come in four different forms?

There are four kinds of past tense in the English language. They are the past simple, past perfect, past continuous, and past perfect continuous. The following chart offers some basic examples of each past tense

Past simple	I walked
Past continuous	I was walking
Past perfect	I had walked
Past continuous perfect	I had been walking

But what does all of this mean? First, let’s break down each of this different past tense forms and when we might use one over another.

1) Simple Past Tense:

The simple past tense shows that a completed action took place at a particular time in the past. You will also find that the simple past tense is often used when talking about past habits and generalizations. Here are some examples of sentences using simple past tense:

Yesterday, I walked all day.

Ben talked for hours at the party.

I saw a perfect movie at the cinema last night.

Last year, I went on holiday to Spain.

Generally, the way to form the simple past tense is to add ‘ed’ to the end of the verb. However, it is essential to note that there are many exceptions to this rule, as many verbs have irregular past forms.

For example, when a verb ends in ‘y’, it’s important to know that we often change the ‘y’ to an ‘I’ if it comes after a consonant. For example:

‘He will try for the school football team.’

‘He tried for the school football team.’Top of Form

2) Continuous Past Tense:

Next up, we have the continuous past tense (also known as the past progressive tense), which shows that an ongoing action was happening at some point in the past. The continuous past tense is formed by combining the past tense of ‘to be’  with the verb’s present participle.

There are several scenarios in which the continuous past tense is required. For instance, it is used to describe conditions in the past:

• Everyone in the classroom was grinning as the teacher began to speak.
• The rain was beating down so hard that everyone got soaked.

Another way we might use the continuous past tense is to describe something happening in the past but interrupted by another action.

• The wedding guests were dancing outside until the rain started.
• She was putting her makeup on when her friends arrived.

The past continuous tense describes something happening at a time in the past.

• At 9 o’clock last night, I was getting ready for bed.
• I was walking home at 6 pm last night.

The last use of the past continuous tense is to discuss a habitual action in the past. For instance:

• She was running to work every day about a year ago.
• Debbie was constantly practicing in preparation for the dance competition.

3) Perfect Past Tense:

The following main form of the past tense is the perfect past tense, also known as the pluperfect, and we use it to talk about something that happened before something else in the past. Perfect past tense helps convey the sequence of events in the past.

The perfect past tense is often formed by adding ‘had’ to the past participle of a verb:

• When I walked outside, I saw that all my flowers had been dug up.
• I got to the restaurant and saw that my friends had already left.

Another way to use the perfect past tense is when expressing a condition and a result:

• I would have been late if I had gotten to school a minute later.
• If I had left my coat on the bus, I would have lost it for good.

4) Continuous Perfect Past Tense:

The final form of the past tense that we need to mention is the continuous perfect past tense, which you might sometimes see referred to as the past perfect progressive tense. It’s used when discussing an action that started in the past and continued until another time.

The continuous perfect past tense is formed using ‘had been’ plus the verb’s present participle (i.e., the root + -ing). Here are a few examples:

• He had been cooking all day when his dinner guests called to cancel.
• The girl had been complaining about the weather for hours when the sun finally came out.
• I had been cleaning the coat for hours when the stain finally came out.

You will typically see words used with the continuous perfect past tense: when, for, since, and before.

• The students had been causing havoc in the classroom for ages before the teacher arrived.
• Amy had been walking for over an hour before she reached her destination.
• The choir that won the competition had been practicing hard since March last year.

What is a Decagon?

A decagon is a polygon easily identified by one key trait – a ten-sided shape with ten interior angles and ten vertices. However, it’s important to remember that a polygon is a closed shape, so even if a figure has ten sides, if it’s not closed, it’s not a decagon.

Decagons are two-dimensional shapes. Two-dimensional shapes are flat and only have two dimensions: length and width. They include squares, rectangles, circles, triangles, and more. All 2D shapes can be measured by their length and width or length and height. But remember, 2D shapes are entirely flat.

Keep reading to learn all about this ten-sided shape!

Types of Decagon

Just like any polygon, there exist two ways in which a decagon can exist – regular or irregular. In polygonal terms, regular means a shape is equal-length sides and equal-measure interior angle, while irregular means it is not restricted to congruent angles or sides.

Comparatively, the regular decagon is far easier on the eye with a more elegant, pleasing shape. This is why regular decagons are popularly used for coins (like those from Australia, Belize, and Hong Kong). Irregular decagons must have ten sides closing in a space, but the lengths of their sides can vary greatly.

Concave and Convex Decagons

The majority of polygons can be either convex or concave. Convex decagons, for instance, protrude outwards and do not possess any interior angles greater than 180°. On the flip side, concave decagons have indentations, which create interior angles greater than 180°.

Regardless of whether a decagon is concave or convex, it possesses the following qualities:

• It is a ten-sided shape
• It has ten vertices
• It has ten interior angles

All decagons share the above properties, including regular, irregular, concave, and convex. However, there is one property that is unique to concave and convex decagons:

• Their interior angles always add up to 1,440°

Simple and Complex Decagons

Decagons can either be simple or complex. Simple decagons have no sides that cross over themselves, and they follow all of the conventional rules of polygons.

A standard regular decagon meets all these requirements:

• Regular decagon
• Convex decagon
• Simple decagon

On the other hand, complex decagons are self-intersecting, meaning that their sides cross over each other. Despite having additional interior spaces because their sides cross over one another, complex decagons are still technically classified as a ten-sided shape, with ten interior angles and ten vertices. Because they are so irregular, complex decagons do not follow any rules.

What is an Explanation Text?

An Explanation text is a piece of non-fiction writing that explains an action process or event in a detailed but basic way. It has numbered points, pictures, diagrams, labels, and captions to help the reader understand the process of what’s being delivered.

What are the Key Features of an Explanation Text?

• Explanation text is typically written in the present tense with formal to-the-point language that doesn’t deviate from the topic.
• It uses separate text with headings and subheadings to make the explanation text simple and easy to understand.
• Add pictures and diagrams with labels for visual learners.
• Any technical vocabulary should fit into a glossary at the end to help with jargon.
• Numbered points that explain something step-by-step.

Here is the above explanation text example that’s been rewritten in an instructional way:

How is Ice Cream Made?

Mix milk, cream, and sugar.

Heat the mixture to kill off any germs.

Add flavors and colorings to the mixture, i.e., strawberry and pink food coloring.

Freeze and whip the mixture to make the ice cream consistency.

How can I use explanation text examples to support students’ writing?

You can use explanation text examples within the classroom to support the following:

• For text analysis where children search for genre features.
• To support teachers and staff in their knowledge and understanding of the 2014 English National Curriculum objectives.
• As a high-quality example for children to aim for in their writing.
• Children can see how language devices can work in the context of a complete text.
• For SLT or English subjects, leaders are to develop a portfolio of exemplar texts.

What’s the difference between an information text and an explanation text?

Instructional text is sequencing an event, action, or process by telling someone what to do. See above for an example.

Explanation text describes something non-fiction; it typically explains ‘why’ we do something and the entire process.