Shapes around us

When you look around, shapes are everywhere. Let's learn to spot them and name them.

In the kitchen

• circle: a plate, a wall clock, the ring around a gas hob
• square: a tile, a square cookie
• triangle: a slice of pizza, half a sandwich
• rectangle: a worktop, a recipe book, a rectangular biscuit

In your room

• circle: wheels on a toy cart, a lamp, dials on a remote
• square: certain shelves seen from above
• triangle: party flags
• rectangle: a door, a window, a book, a rug

On the street

• circle: car wheels, a manhole cover
• square: some house windows
• triangle: warning signs, the roof of a house
• rectangle: doors, paving stones, a billboard

A game: shape hunt

Try this with a parent or a friend:

1. Choose a shape (let's say circle).
2. Walk around the room or take a stroll outside.
3. Find everything that has that shape.
4. Whoever finds more in 5 minutes wins.

You'll quickly see that circles and rectangles are everywhere!

Shapes in stories

Shapes hide in fairy tales and pictures too:

• a house: square + triangle (roof)
• a train: a long rectangle + circle wheels
• a snowman: three circles stacked up
• a rocket: triangle on top + rectangle below

Try the exercises

In Find the shapes a scene full of shapes is waiting. Click each target shape.

In Name the shape review the shape names.

And once it's all easy, head back to the Preschool math page to look at the other topics: Counting, Comparing and Addition and subtraction.