Front, side and top views of a solid

Solid P is built from unit cubes. Here's Solid P, drawn on dot paper. The arrows show where you look from. Draw the front view of Solid P. A view is the solid drawn flat, from one side. From the front, a cube behind another one lines up with it, so the two of them show as one square. Two cubes across the bottom, so two squares. Two more above them, and one more on top at the right. That's the front view, 5 squares. Draw the side view of Solid P. Looking in from the right, the front of the solid is on the left of the grid. Two squares across the bottom, then two more stacked up at the back. Four squares this time. Draw the top view of Solid P. From above you see the floor the solid stands on. Two squares by two squares. A full square, and it doesn't tell you how tall anything is. How many unit cubes are used to build Solid P? The top view has 4 squares, and nothing floats, so every one of those squares has a cube standing under it. So the base layer is 4 cubes. One of them is hidden, behind the front cube and under the raised one. The front view and the side view both show a middle layer at the back, 2 cubes wide. Then 1 cube on top. That's 7 unit cubes.

Your turn. Solid Q is built from 5 unit cubes. Draw the top view of Solid Q on the grid. Try it first. Pause if you like. Looking straight down, the floor is 2 squares by 2 squares. A full square, 4 squares in all. And the drawing is the answer. A view is one flat side of the solid. One of Solid Q's 5 cubes is hidden, behind the front cube and under the raised one. The top view has 4 squares. The solid has 5 cubes. A view is a shape, and the number of cubes is not in it.