I would explain to Robert that squares are actually a special type of rectangle. A rectangle is defined as a shape with four sides, with opposite sides being equal in length and all angles being right angles. A square meets these criteria, as it has four equal sides and right angles.
Therefore, a 2-by-2 square and a 3-by-3 square are indeed rectangles. In fact, they are special cases of rectangles called square rectangles, where all sides are equal in length.
Encourage Robert to think of squares as a subset of rectangles. All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.
When Ms. Lopez asked her class to use their tiles and make rectangular arrays for the counting numbers 1 to 12, Robert made only one rectangle for 4 (1 by 4) and one for 9 (1 by 9). He did not form a 2-by-2 square and a 3-by-3 square for these numbers because he said they were not rectangles. What would you say to Robert?
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