The Awkward Triangle

In our recent area unit, we've talked a lot about how "every shape is a rectangle" and if they can just find the rectangle, they can find the area. For example, a triangle is half of a rectangle, so because we can find area of a rectangle by base x height, we can find the triangle by dividing the rectangle's area in half. On the test there was a question that showed an oblique triangle, noting that the triangle does not look like 1/2 a rectangle, so why does bh/2 work?



Here is the best description I've ever gotten as to why this kind of triangle is tricky:
"The triangle is more pointy so it's confusing. This works because no matter what kind of triangle it is it will still have another rectangle that fits its awkwardness."

I do love awkward triangles. Almost as much as I love the awkward things kids write on tests.