1 Once upon a time, a long time ago in a land far away, shapes could talk. They had legs. They had arms. They had faces. They could do everything you could do! They had just one problem. None of the shapes knew how many sides it had.
2 They argued about how many sides each shape had. They did research about sides. They talked to experts. They sat around and thought about sides. Still, they did not know how many sides each one had.
3 "Let's go to the school," Mr. Square said. "Maybe they know how to solve our problem."
4 So off the shapes went. They walked and walked. At last they came to the school. They went into the first classroom. It was a first grade classroom.
5 "Hello," the teacher said. "Can we help you?"
6 "We hope so," Mr. Rectangle said. "We do not know how many sides we have. We can't agree. I think I have three sides. Mr. Square says I have five sides. Mr. Circle says I have four sides. It is so confusing! Can you help us?"
7 The first grade children all laughed. They laughed at the silly shapes.
8 "Do you know how to count?" Billy asked.
9 Mr. Circle puffed out his chest. "Of course, we can count," he said. "What do you want me to count?"
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